Songbird
by greysky3
Summary: Lily Evans' Patronus had always been a songbird, since the first time she'd cast it in her fourth year. Then one day, something went wrong. Now she casts her Patronus and all that appears is a doe to match James Potter's stag. [seventh-year fic, Jily]
1. Chapter 1

Worry constricted Lily's throat as she waved to her parents. The Hogwarts Express gathered speed and their smiling faces were left behind, as the station blurred together. Tuney hadn't wanted to come, declaring she had better things to do on her last day of summer break.

Lily had tried, really tried this time to get Tuney to see her off, because no one knew what would happen. She couldn't explain it to her Muggle family, not the brewing conflict, nor the fact that because they weren't magical now a portion of the wizarding world shunned her, treated her as having filthy blood.

No, they couldn't know. Lily feared that they'd somehow find out, and keep her home. She didn't think she could stand it if she had to go to, well, _normal _school, away from her friends and magic.

But a small part of her worried, that her protective enchantments she'd placed over their home weren't enough to keep them from harm. Never one to break rules, Lily was terrified the Ministry would find out she'd done underage magic.

Apparently they'd overlooked it, whether it was because they had bigger fish to fry at the moment or because the Ministry was now completely infiltrated and in ruins Lily didn't know.

Lugging her heavy trunk with her, Lily heard Barley, her barn owl, screech in protest. Apparently he wasn't too happy with the jerky movements. "Sorry," Lily told him, trying to pull her trunk more smoothly.

Looking into all the compartments she passed, and silently cursing her friends' liking of sitting in the back of the train, Lily slowly made her way down the train's hallway.

She was starting to think it was a bad idea to stuff her trunk full of books when the bane of her existence suddenly made his appearance in front of her.

"Evans," said James Potter with an easy smile.

Lily sighed, ready for him to offer to carry her bags, or offer to go out to Hogsmeade with her. She was prepared to argue her way out, when she realized she'd been pulling her trunks the Muggle way. A summer with her family could make her forget that she could do magic for every little thing now that she was back in the wizarding world. "_Locomotor," _she muttered, pointing her wand at her trunk. She guided it up into the air.

"Excuse me," she said, walking past James without a second glance, her trunk hovering high above both their heads.

She didn't have to walk much longer before she found the compartment where the other seventh-year Gryffindors were. She slid the door open to the compartment.

"Lily!" Marlene McKinnon hugged her before she could even react. Her wand hand jerked and the trunk hit the window, which sent Barley into a fit.

Marlene finally let go of Lily and she was gasping for air. "Save the emotional scenes 'till I get in!" she warned, trying a second time to enter the compartment. She waved her wand and straightened her trunk, sending it neatly into the luggage compartment.

"Bit magic-happy, aren't you?" Hestia Jones commented.

Lily shrugged. "A summer with Muggles can do that to you," Mary McDonald answered for her. Lily smiled at Mary, who was never one for big hugs or speeches.

Mary was reading from her Defense Against the Dark Arts book, her eyebrows knitted together in concentration. "I've never been able to cast a corporeal Patronus," she mumbled, looking at a page in her book.

"Lily can," Marlene said casually. Lily prayed against all hope that maybe they hadn't heard, but all eyes turned to her. Everyone's eyes had gone wide, and Marlene was smirking at her.

"Go on," Hestia urged. Lily closed her eyes, pictured her Hogwarts letter, the yellowed parchment with a violently purple seal, resting on her mother's favorite checkered blue tablecloth.

"_Expecto Patronum._" She opened her eyes and there was a little bird, twittering away as it flew in a lazy circle around the room. It sang once, a long, trilling note, and turned back towards Lily to perch on her finger. Lily smiled at it, looking into its silvery beady eyes. She'd never figured out what kind of bird it was, but it vaguely reminded her of summer picnics and spring blossoms, like she'd heard its song when she was little but couldn't remember now.

It turned, hopped off her finger and dissolved. Lily had let her happy thoughts dissolve into melancholy for a childhood lost. She looked around the train compartment. "It's beautiful," Mary said, her voice hushed.

"What d'you reckon my Patronus would be?" Hestia wondered aloud.

"I dunno, maybe a flobberworm," Marlene said teasingly. Hestia gave her a friendly punch in the arm, which turned into a real fistfight, and the regular chaos of the seventh year girls resumed. Lily sat away from the group, checking her Muggle watch anxiously.

Twenty minutes into the train ride, she was to arrive at the prefects' carriage. She bit her lip nervously, a habit she was trying to break, and felt in her pocket for her badge. Ever since Lily had gotten it in the mail she'd been terrified of losing it, which would make her seem unworthy of being Head Girl. Not that Lily often lost things, of course, but she thought she was entitled to a few irrational worries.

Five minutes before she was due in the prefects' carriage, Lily stood up. No one questioned her leaving as she slid the door open. Since fifth year, Lily Evans had been going religiously to every prefect event or meeting. Lily assumed they'd think she was just another prefect going to the meeting. She hadn't told them yet, and it was churning her stomach to think that as representative of Gryffindor for the whole school, she was not acting with the courage that defined her House.

The halls were mostly empty, and voices floated from either side of the halls, laughing echoing in the compartments. Lily sucked her breath in when she saw a too-familiar face, Severus, peering sourly into the hall. He followed her with his eyes until Lily was past her carriage, and when Lily glanced quickly back, his gaze hadn't moved. Lily felt her cheeks burn as she whipped her head back around, embarrassed that she'd let him see how much his attitude was affecting her. She'd been a little skittish since the night before, when she'd gotten a letter in Severus' handwriting, (she couldn't forget it no matter how hard she tried), with only one word scrawled on it: _careful_.

Her frazzled nerves had made this letter bother her more than it should have, her dreams last night had been mostly made of nightmares, visions of letters and warnings and dead friends. They'd left her tossing and turning all night, and Lily had woken up with a pounding headache, frizzy hair, and bags under her eyes, tangled in her sheets.

She opened the door to the prefect's carriage with more energy than was really necessary and surveyed the scene. Remus Lupin was sitting calmly, reading a book, and people were chattering, going about their business. Lily took another step into the compartment, a nervous hand clutching her Head Girl badge in her pocket.

"Hello," she said as evenly as she could manage.

A Hufflepuff prefect abruptly stopped the story she was animatedly telling her friend, and stopped to goggle at Lily. Many other prefects dropped their bags of candy, and some, namely the Slytherins, didn't bother, and only sneered at her, but the shocked silence that had started at the front of the compartment rippled across the prefects, who all were looking towards the entrance of the prefects' carriage.

Only Remus Lupin hadn't reacted, still leafing through his book after a quick upward glance. Lily swallowed. They couldn't know yet, could they? As far as they were aware, she was only another prefect coming to their usual meeting—there really was no need for them to stare.

Just as Lily thought her quaking knees were going to give way, another voice sounded from behind her. "Alright," he said, and Lily snapped her head around to join all the other people in the room in looking at James Potter like confused fish.

He was the last person anyone expected to see in the prefects' carriage, unless he was trying to pull off another one of his legendary Marauder's pranks, which was the same inevitable conclusion Lily arrived to, along with the others who had begun a small murmur of dissent.

"Potter, this is the prefects'—" Lily began heatedly.

He stopped her with a self-confident grin that somehow halted her protests in their tracks. "I know, love."

It took her a moment to focus on the small object that James was brandishing as an armor against Lily's anger, and when she did see the shiny bit of metal wedged between his thumb and pointer finger, a squeak escape Lily, despite all her composure.

James Potter strode past her and into the prefects' carriage. "I," he announced grandly, "am the Head Boy."


	2. Chapter 2

"You _what_?"

"James _what_?"

Lily smacked her head as Marlene and Hestia squabbled over what was more shocking gossip; the fact that Lily had been Head Girl and hadn't told them, or the fact that _James Potter_, famous troublemaker, had been chosen as the other Head.

"You know, you'll have to _live _with him," Marlene taunted, tossing her long blond hair.

Lily looked at her with a mixture of panic and alarm. "What?"

"Yeah, the Heads have their own dormitory," Hestia added, nodding.

"Oh, no," Lily groaned, while Hestia and Marlene giggled; they'd been trying to convince Lily to return James' obvious attentions.

"You will visit, won't you?" Mary asked anxiously.

"'Course," Lily said. "I still need to go to the common room."

"Oh, you're practically Mrs. Potter already!"

In another carriage heading up to the castle, another group of seventh years were also reeling from the news of the Heads. "First Moony, now you," Sirius complained. "We've got two Marauders on the enemy side!"

"We could use them as double agents," Peter proposed hopefully.

"Shut up, Wormy. We're not waging a war here, it's just school," James muttered, his eyes closed and in an apparent state of annoyance.

"No, but he does have a point. Heads and prefects can be out of bed late—that'll come in handy, I suppose," Sirius reasoned.

They all turned to James, waiting for him to contribute a funny remark, or act mock offended at the fact that Sirius only cared about his advantages for troublemaking. In earlier years James would have jumped at the occasion to make some sort of joke, but he only sat broodingly looking out the window.

Remus shook his head, wordlessly telling the others to leave James alone. He was obviously in one of his moods, which had been occurring with increasing frequency since the end of sixth year.

But when everyone had expected him to stay silent for the rest of the carriage ride, James spoke when they least expected it.

"Lily's going to hate me," he said.

"Why would she hate you?" Remus, the most sensitive Marauder, asked.

"When I told them I was Head Boy, she looked at me… she looked at me like it was my fault, like it was a personal insult."

"You know it's not you who asked to be Head Boy," Remus placated.

"If she's that huffy then maybe she's not worth the trouble…" Sirius muttered.

James turned an angry glare towards Sirius and James' best friend held his gaze. Peter looked between them with quickly, his eyes flickering with fear. It wouldn't be pretty if James and Sirius had a row in the carriage.

"I think Lily's very nice," Peter put in quietly.

This broke their intense staring match. "Shut up," they said in unison, then laughed together, the bubble of tension broken at last.

Peter frowned in his end of the carriage. They always dismissed his word like that, with some variant of "shut up," when it was he who had just averted the crisis. Peter looked to Remus for some support (the quiet Marauder was always kindest to Peter), but he was already engrossed in a book that Peter recognized from the train ride.

When the carriages halted in front of Hogwarts, James was already betting his Head Boy's badge in a game of Exploding Snap, Remus had reached chapter twenty-seven, and Peter still hadn't said a word.

! #$%^&amp;*

"First years over here," Lily chimed, herding a mass of tiny-looking new Gryffindors. "The step there vanishes, careful," she added, steering a girl out of the way at the last second.

"Yes, what she said," James added miserably. "Careful, there—" he said to a boy who was poking a suit of armor, but he didn't seem to hear. The helmet slammed shut onto the boy's finger, and James sighed as he howled in pain.

He followed Lily and her overbearing instructions to the corridor in front of the common room. "The password is 'Mandragora,'" she told the first years. "It will change every once in a while, and mind don't forget it, otherwise you won't be able to get in. If you do forget, a prefect should be able to help, or you can come find me."

She left the first years to go to the other stairway that lead to the Gryffindor Heads' common room. The new Gryffindors were left staring at James, who himself was at a loss for what to do. "Yeah, I was going to say all that," he told them lamely. "Mandragora."

The portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and the first years all filed in. James turned to the stairwell into which Lily had disappeared into; wondering what kind of system was in place there to get in.

He knew how to get into the Hufflepuff common room; he'd overhead two lost first years discussing it a few years back. He'd never bothered to go there, James would much rather sneak into the kitchens with the help of his invisibility cloak. He knew that Ravenclaw Tower had some kind of puzzle they needed to solve to get in; and of course Gryffindor had the simple password.

James stepped into the alcove that he'd often seen in the past years but had never given much thought to. It was richly decorated in red hangings with delicate golden embroidery, and at the back of the alcove stood a plain, arched wooden door. It was made of strong, polished oak, and James felt it wonderingly as he tried to guess how to open it.

He knocked on the door experimentally; and as he'd expected it was solid. He trailed a finger all around the edges, trying to find a hidden groove or something. James thought he felt a section of the door that felt warmer to the touch, and as he kneeled down to inspect it, the door suddenly fell open in front of him. James thought for a second he'd found the key to opening the door; when he looked up to see Lily holding the door open.

"Oh," he said dumbly.

"Thought you'd be out here. Heard you knocking," she said shortly, a disapproving expression on her face.

"You didn't read to the end of the Head Boy letter, did you?" Lily asked. James shook his head sheepishly. "The password's 'Ginger Root,' but we can change it."

"Thanks," James said honestly. Lily's eyes narrowed suspiciously. In the whole of her conversation with James, he hadn't so far asked her out nor told her how great he was. Lily searched through the possible explanations and settled on some sort of trick on James' part.

Lily opened the door a bit wider and James stepped in. He looked round their common room while Lily shut the door. It was decorated in red and gold like the other common room, but this time in faded colors, with drapings and hangings covering most of the room. A fire crackled in an ancient stone fireplace, decorated with carved lions of wide snarls and roars and almost monkeyish expressions. The whole place gave off the impression of something very old and powerful, like the room had remained untouched since Godric Gryffindor himself.

Two thin, spindly staircases wound in opposite directions, twisting away from each other into what seemed like a second floor. Amazed at this whole section of the castle he'd never discovered, James stepped up the stairs that, if they mirrored the Gryffindor common room, led to the boys' dormitory.

On the top of the stairs was a door that said in faded, gold lettering: "Head Boy." James pushed the door open and saw that this room was decorated, in contrast to the abundance of red and gold downstairs, in a deep midnight blue, with shimmering drapes around the window and bed.

James smiled when he saw his trunk already there, waiting patiently for him in his new room. He opened it and flung out robes, shirts, spellbooks, and other assorted bits of rubbish until his fingers closed around what he was searching for. James pulled out the little rectangular mirror and sat down on his bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Lily's first impression of her dormitory was that it was very, very green. It almost hurt her eyes—the varying shades of evergreen, mint green, spring green, and deep forest green in the trimmings of her wall.

Lily had read in _Hogwarts, A History_ that the Heads' dormitories magically recreated a room to fit the personalities, or souls, of its inhabitants. Lily wondered whether her soul was green.

If she closed her eyes a little and let everything blur, it was nice, she decided. She could imagine she was in a field of grass, or in the hills near her house. She breathed in and could almost smell the trees. She opened an eye and saw again her dormitory. She was being silly, she told herself. Lily imagined the first years that were supposed to look up to her, seeing her in her room giggling like an idiot, imagining fields of grass.

She sat down on her bed, which was fitted with a spring green silk bedspread with embroidered trees, their little branches crisscrossing on the bed. Lily wondered what James' room looked like, then quickly shook off the thought. Why would she care what that arrogant prat's soul looked like? It was probably all gold and Quidditch in there.

Speaking of James, Lily could hear him talking from the other side of the floor. Lily frowned. Was he talking to himself? No, most likely was that he was talking to somebody else.

Lily stepped towards her door. Who had he brought? Marauders? A girl? He most definitely wasn't allowed to do that, Lily reasoned. It was her responsibility as Head Girl to see what was going on.

Lily loped easily down the stairs then back up James', stalking closer to the door he'd left nonchalantly open. Now she could catch bits of his conversation, though she wasn't close enough to see into the room.

"…can't tell you the password," James' voice said.

"Why not Prongs?"

"No, no I'm not."

At the mention of passwords Lily stepped closer to the door, with a surge of newfound bravery. She saw James on his bed, absentmindedly ruffling his hair and…looking at himself in a mirror?

"You're no fun," said a voice that was most definitely not coming from James' mouth. Lily thought she recognized the voice…was it Sirius Black? No, but it couldn't be. She scanned the room—it most definitely wasn't coming from the furniture, nor James, so that only left the mirror.

Lily felt a small smile spread on her face as she figured it out—it was an enchanted mirror that allowed James and Sirius to communicate. She backed away from the door quickly before James could see her.

As she walked back up to her own room, she felt a sort of loneliness come over her. She missed her friends already—she didn't have a mirror, or any sort of magical object to keep contact with them. She knew she'd have classes with them the next day, but she missed the first night back, where they'd all talk about their summers until they passed out from exhaustion.

Lily sat in her green room and watched the light drain out of the sky as night fell. "Expecto Patronum," she said softly, picturing the texture of the tablecloth again, and the burnt-caramel color of the parchment envelope.

When she opened her eyes, her vaporlike, silvery bird was perched on her finger, and she could feel its warmth spreading through her. It opened its minute beak and sang one shrill note for her, and Lily smiled at it.

It seemed to encourage her to take action, and ten minutes later a shriek could be heard in the seventh year girls' dormitory.

"Lily!" Marlene McKinnon exclaimed.

Sheepishly, Lily waved at her old friends. "Didn't want to be alone first night back," she said.

Lily found her old bed, in its usual spot next to the window, and surveyed the common room from her familiar spot. Hestia Jones tossed her a bag of assorted Honeydukes candies, and Lily felt some of her worries evaporate as she settled into her bed, her real, proper Hogwarts bed.

! #$%^&amp;*

His watch, a family heirloom, woke him up at a relatively early time for his first day of school. "Come on, James," it wheezed in a voice that might have belonged to a great-uncle.

"Too early," he mumbled, but the enchanted watch wouldn't listen to him.

"It's the first day of class, time to uphold the Potter family honor like your—"

A tap of James' wand silenced the watch. He really hated the old thing, but it was enchanted to think for itself, which did come in useful when it shouted at him to get up for a Quidditch match he'd forgotten.

He dressed quickly, threading his Gryffindor tie through the familiar movements until it was loosely hanging from his neck. He stepped into his new common room, still not used to having his living quarters so…so deserted.

Last year there was always the stray Gryffindor hanging around the common room, sitting near the fire doing last-minute homework or talking to a friend; James could count on the Marauders talking, scheming, or sleeping in a corner when he returned from Quidditch practice.

Even when his friends weren't there, the Gryffindor common room was anything but empty and desolate. James looked at the luxurious deep red velvet curtains that sat in thick folds covered in dust; no wind had stirred them from those seemingly permanently shut windows.

James sighed and pushed the wooden door open to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

! #$%^&amp;*

Lily was rifling through a book, checking a list of the prefects, and writing something on a piece of parchment all while managing to shove copious amounts of breakfast food into her mouth.

"Head Girl overwhelmed by her duties?" Marlene asked.

Lily glared, but knew Marlene was joking by one look at her face. Lily chewed furiously, scratching something out in her parchment and circling another line of text.

"I'm managing," she said, even though every aspect of her behavior indicated that she was not. Lily tugged at a strand of her hair that she twirled pensively around a finger, putting down her fork for a moment.

"If the two Hufflepuffs go there… no, I'll have to put the Ravenclaws in their own tower, can't have them patrolling their friends…"

"Ask James for help," Hestia suggested, and Lily looked at her, eyes bulging like she'd suggested something totally insane. Mary shot a dubious look towards the four Marauders, whose voices didn't carry to their end of the table but were visibly laughing, clutching the table for support.

"So… I can put Frank there, yes, I trust Frank…" Lily muttered, adding to her parchment _Frank Longbottom, 6:00-7:30, dungeons._

Hestia was about to ask Lily another thing about her planning, but Marlene shook her head seriously; it was best if Lily wasn't disturbed. She had a look of utmost concentration, and it was at these times of stress that shouting matches most often arose.

She wrote in _James Potter, 7:30-9:30, Astronomy Tower _with unnecessary vitriol, ripping the parchment slightly with her quill and leaving blots of ink in James' name. Lily's friends exchanged anxious glances and left her to her violent planning.

Further down the table, the Marauders were still chortling slightly after a Sirius' wonderful account of how, over the summer, he and James had found Regulus and followed him under the invisibility cloak.

"So, the first night at the Heads' dormitory…" Sirius said, edging the conversation away from his frankly rather brilliant ploys to rob his younger brother of his sanity, towards the much more interesting topic no other Marauder had been brave enough to ask James about.

"Good," James muttered, suddenly closed off and not at all laughing.

"Good?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"It's just a new room," James shrugged, poking at an egg and stabbing its yolk, making the yellow flood out of it like thick, oddly colored blood.

"With Lily on the other side," Sirius persisted.

"Did you kiss her?" Peter asked in an excited squeal.

"_No,_" James said shortly. He looked as though he was going to add something then thought better of it and picked at his food moodily.

_Drama queen_, Sirius mouthed at Remus when James wasn't looking, and Sirius saw Moony's eyes crinkle slightly. He supposed the rest of his face was smiling as well, but it was hidden behind another thick and boring-looking book.

Sirius was about to poke some more fun at his best friend, but he found McGonagall giving out their schedules. Though she was one of the younger teachers at Hogwarts, her strict and stern demeanor made her look much older, and she was still one of the scariest people the Marauders had come across.

She let out a disapproving "hmpf" noise as she gave the four boys their schedules. Sirius thought about asking her whether she was glad they were finally leaving this year (rude or clever remarks always seemed to pop into his head), but she had already moved down the Gryffindor table, towards the younger students, and past them Lily and her friends.

Sirius looked at Lily. Sure, she wasn't bad-looking, but he couldn't understand what about her made James' brain turn to mush and get progressively moodier the longer he thought about her.

She looked a bit unhinged at the moment, Sirius thought to himself, her hair tied up haphazardly and scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment she was tearing unconsciously.

But then again, James had always been a bit off, and living with him now Sirius confirmed his theory; his mate Prongs was off his rocker. But then, a mate's a mate, Sirius reasoned. He'd have to put up with his insanity.

It was almost time for classes, judging by the wave of students deserting their breakfast tables. James stood up, seeing that he had Herbology first, and headed out of the Great Hall in no hurry, letting his feet guide him where he had to go out of habit.

His descent to the greenhouses was halted when something was shoved in front of his face. James blinked, and realized it was parchment. He grabbed it and as his vision cleared, Lily appeared in front of him.

"Schedules for the prefects' patrols," she said shortly.

"Oh. Right," James said, not sure why his brain suddenly seemed to move more slowly and struggle to find words that together made up coherent English. He looked down at the list of names, hours, and locations. "Is there anything I can-?"

"No."

"Right," James said again. Lily gave him a strange look and started to catch up to the other Gryffindors which were nearly at the greenhouses. James found his name among the others, and his seven thirty to nine thirty rotation. James' stomach sank when he realized Quidditch practice this year was from six o'clock to eight, something he himself, Quidditch Captain had decided.

James ran down to where Lily was. "Lily!"

She turned and he thought quickly how to tell her without making her angry. "I—I can't at seven thirty, Quidditch practice is until eight…"

Lily frowned slightly, looking upset that her planning had been disrupted. "Well…I suppose I can switch the Ravenclaws… and you can do the late night rotation, with me."

"Cheers," he said, allowing himself a grin. Lily quirked an eyebrow like she wasn't sure how to respond, then ducked into the greenhouse. James followed the streak of red hair into the glass building as well; he was already late for class.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite the teachers and their continuing efforts to make everything seem normal and have school carry on normally, all was not well.

Not only at Howgarts, but unrest was stirring everywhere else, and it seemed inevitable that it might seep into the walls of the castle. The Slytherins now huddled together and whispered, speaking of Death Eaters and jeering at any muggle borns.

The halls seemed full of furtive, anxious people, wanting to get quickly to their classes or rushing to the safety of their common rooms. Even the younger students seemed a bit put out by the nervous energy that dampened the spirits of all.

Lily was rushing towards Potions, feeling like a weight on her the stares of Slytherins and those who were known Voldemort supporters, even at school age. She drew strength from withdrawing into her mind like she did when Petunia taunted her. Lily allowed herself a little smile at how ironic it was; at home Tuney hated her for being a witch, and at school they persecuted her because she was, to them, too Muggle.

She ran down the stone stairs to the dungeons. On top of everything, Lily absolutely couldn't be late; whenever she arrived in class a few minutes late, Slughorn would always loudly ask her what was wrong, as if he couldn't possibly imagine that his model student would have been any less than punctual unless there were a serious emergency.

_I'm not a saint,_ she thought angrily as she pushed open the door and found the class preparing their cauldrons, thankfully not yet started. Lily picked a spot as far away from Sev—Snape, she corrected mentally, and sat down resolutely.

Slughorn was nowhere to be seen, and Lily sat anxiously, rearranging her cauldron on her table so that it would be perfectly centered, the lined up her knives perfectly parallel to one another, in order of decreasing size. She fiddled with her tie now, nothing left to do.

She had to admit; being late on the first day of classes, however inconvenient for others, was a very typical thing of Slughorn. He was not one of strict rules; in fact rules only seemed to apply to those who he didn't like, and the members of the Slug Club, as the students mockingly called it, were exempt from the usual limitations or regulations.

"Oi, Muggle," a voice drifted from the back of the dungeon.

Lily didn't turn nor make any outward sign that she'd heard other that suddenly freezing, and sitting ramrod straight in her chair, no longer fiddling with her tie.

"Seems Muggles are deaf too. Completely useless," the voice continued.

Lily was not angry yet; they'd have to try much harder to break her self-imposed calm, but she was tense, readying herself for some sort of confrontation.

"Oi, Muggle. Were your parents the filth that they made fly around London?"

She'd read that in the _Daily Prophet,_ of course; the Muggles that had been kidnapped then sent flying, completely awake, across the whole of London. It had been a serious breach of the Statue of Secrecy, and had kept the Ministry in a panic trying to erase the memories of London Muggles for about two weeks.

Lily gripped the edge of the table. She was fine. They couldn't hurt her with words. Soon Slughorn would be here, and they'd have lesson, and all this would be over; a funny thing to remember in weeks to come.

"Suppose I take Petunia and send her on a flying adventure next."

Lily whirled around and was standing, wand drawn, before even she could realize what had happened. "Who told you about Tuney?" she growled.

"Oh, right. Your Muggle sister—never mentioned her, did you? Suppose I wouldn't either, you know, the shame of that filth as a sister…" said Rookwood, who had been the one talking to Lily.

But Lily wasn't looking at Rookwood at all; instead she was glaring at Severus Snape, whose eyes were carefully blank. He had dared tell his new Slytherin friends all about her dysfunctional relationship with Petunia?

Lily wavered from Rookwood to Snape then back again, deciding whose nose to curse off first. "You… you…" she sputtered, trembling with anger.

"Hello, m'dears, bit late, sorry about—oh," Slughorn suddenly went quiet, a hand still on the heavy wooden door he'd just opened.

Lily wavered, still frozen in an attack position by her anger, but slowly lowering her wand. Taking deep, shaky breaths she sat down in front of her cauldron. Slughorn, having no idea how to handle the situation, simply closed his mouth, which had been left open in surprise, and continued with his lesson.

Lily was fuming, later, adding porcupine quills into her potion. She didn't know what made her angrier; the fact that Sev had given away her secrets like they weren't worth anything, or that she had completely lost control at the mention of her sister. They'd hit a nerve at the mention of Tuney, and Lily was sure they would use this knowledge to unhinge her further.

Lily's potion turned cloudy gray, and Lily briefly thought that it was likely reflecting her mood for the rest of the day, like a grim prediction.

! #$%^&amp;*

It was a scowling Lily that James met, that evening, still sweaty and tired from Quidditch practice, for their rounds. She gave him instructions curtly, and ran a hand through hair that he was sure had been smooth and straight in the morning, but was now looking puffier and messier as she continually raked her fingers through it.

James supposed that was a bit rich of him to think, as he walked down towards the Great Hall, as his own hair was a royal mess every minute of the day, with a little help from him and his ruffling it. His footsteps echoed gloomily in the Great Hall. He sighed. There was obviously no one there, why were they even required to do this?

He went down towards the dungeons, where he would patrol around the Hufflepuff quarters then meet Lily in Gryffindor Tower to report his findings. Then they'd repeat this stupid routine for another hour and a half.

He walked past the painting of the bowl of fruit. "This is stupid. There's no one," he muttered to himself. "Why am I talking to myself?" he mused aloud.

In response he heard a muted laugh that most definitely hadn't come from him. James paused. He looked around and saw no one. "Hello?"

No giggle responded. James concluded that it must have been his imagination, and began once again fantasizing about going to bed.

He walked briskly forward, before hitting into what seemed to be an invisible wall. James felt the wind being knocked out of him and he grappled blindly at the mass he'd apparently run into.

He felt a supple material in his hands and as he tugged, Sirius' face appeared out of thin air. He wasn't controlling his laughing anymore, and was throwing his head back in pure mirth.

James, not amused, pulled the rest of the invisibility cloak off. "This is mine," he half-whined, hearing Sirius coughing for air while he laughed.

Sirius hiccupped. "Why am I talking to myself?" he said in a poor, high-pitched imitation of James.

"What are you doing here?"

Sirius pulled out a mound of chocolate bars he'd wrapped in a linen napkin. He'd obvious just gotten them from the kitchens. "For Moony?" James asked, knowing full well about his friend's strange chocolate infatuation.

"Lost a bet," Sirius shrugged.

"Remus doesn't bet."

"Oh yes, he does," Sirius answered, an annoyingly knowing smile on his face.

James sighed. "Disappear before I have to report you," he said in a resigned voice. Sirius nodded and saluted, disappearing again under the cloak. Ten minutes later he was back up at the Gryffindor Tower meeting point.

"Nothing to report," Lily said very officially.

"Nothing to report," James repeated, lying with utmost ease. He hesitated. "What if we… go to bed? I think there's nothing left to patrol now."

Lily paused. She'd be ending an hour early—this would be disobeying direct orders, and on the first day of class no less, but the idea of sleeping was ridiculously tempting.

"Yes, I suppose it won't make a difference," she said, more for her own benefit than James'.

James nodded with relief and spoke to the door. "Ginger Root."

Severus breathed again when James stepped into the door. The moment they'd been waiting for was there at last.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, everything was chaos. Lily had thought there was something wrong with the door, and had wrestled with it, trying to get it open, before it finally burst and let her see the huge crowd that had amassed in front of that hall, all talking amongst themselves and pushing each other to see something better.

"Head Girl here, let me through!" Lily shouted, but no one heard, or if they did, they didn't care, so she began to elbow her way through the crowd of students. The Gryffindor Heads' common room door opened again, and Lily turned to see a bewildered James, still wearing the ragged shirt he'd slept in and with his glasses crooked.

Lily reached the front of the crowd and her mouth fell into a perfectly round little "o." The suits of armor that had once proudly lined the halls had been somehow dismembered. Their metallic bits floated grotesquely, bathed in green lights. They had been arranged so that each suit of armor floated in its own little space, with its bits jumbled and out of order. The green light came from a number of Dark Marks, one hovering above each of the metallic piles.

Lily was stunned, and suddenly felt an arm resting comfortingly on her shoulder. Sensing it was James, she shoved it off, still staring at the snake that writhed inside one of the skulls. It seemed like its head was staring straight at her, its tongue flickering out, and Lily had to break eye contact.

She turned to face the crowd. "Everybody out! Now!" she shouted, sending up small fireworks from her wand to get everyone's attention. The popping noises called everyone to attention, and they started milling around, mumbling, the noise level reduced to a murmur.

"EVERYBODY OUT NOW IF YOU WANT TO HAVE HOUSE POINTS LEFT THIS DECADE!" she shouted, shooting more sparks that sailed above their heads. The crowd started to move faster now, thinning out.

"That was kind of hot," James whispered in her ear, and Lily turned on him viciously, her wand still out.

"Right, sorry," James said, but he couldn't quite get rid of the last traces of a smirk.

A scared-looking Hufflepuff girl stood still among the dispersing crowd. "I-I'm a prefect, I was wondering—"

"Go get Dumbledore," Lily said, turning again to look at the display.

One of the helmets bobbed next to her, and the metallic jaws clanked together. "Apologies…" one whispered. "We have failed to protect our castle…"

Lily felt a sudden pang of compassion for the bewitched metal, as illogical as that was. "You were very brave, thank you," Lily said. "Thank you for your service."

She swallowed, willing herself to stay on task. "Do you know who did this?" she asked.

"Students…" the helmet said, before drooping lower.

"What a shame…" a soft voice said behind Lily, which caused her to turn. Instinctively, she straightened up, trying to look alert and professional.

Dumbledore was looking sadly at the display, looking every bit as moved for the suit of armors' plight as Lily had been a moment ago. He waved his hand in an arc and closed it again, and the suits of armor all fell to the floor in one impossibly loud, clattering motion. A strange sigh seemed to escape the piles on the floor.

The old wizard looked up at the Dark Marks. "Those will take a little more effort to remove," he muttered, before turning to Lily. "I hear you… handled the situation?"

Lily felt her cheeks burn. In the heat of the moment, she had shouted at everyone, instead of being the leader she should've been. "Yes… I…" she said, but she couldn't exactly explain _what_ she did, so she stayed silent.

"And what about Mr. Potter?" Professor Dumbledore asked, and both Heads stayed silent. Dumbledore shook his head. "Miss Evans, now is, more than ever, a time for cooperation, especially within the two leaders of the student body. I can appreciate that it may be difficult getting acclimated with living in such close quarters… Usually, each Head has a common room to themselves alone. It is not usual to have two Heads of the same House. Bear that in mind," Dumbledore said, and turned towards the Dark Marks, muttering something under his breath with his palms facing upwards.

Lily carried a feeling of shame all the way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, but despite Dumbledore's urgings to work together, she couldn't bring herself to speak to James, who followed her down in utter silence.

At breakfast, the rumors were flying around. Lily poked at her porridge, making ridges and whorls in it with a spoon. Most of the theories followed along the same lines: everybody was saying that it must have been the Slytherins who were bitter that Gryffindor had gotten both of the Heads.

Lily was worried in the immediate because she had disappointed Dumbledore in her duties as Head Girl, but there was the nagging worry, also, that this went beyond a school prank. After all, the Dark Mark was no laughing matter, and maybe this was a symptom that things were getting worse outside now, that the Death Eaters were beginning to infiltrate what had once been thought of as the safest place to hide from Dark forces: Hogwarts.

Lily worried about her family and in her porridge she saw terrifying images, that maybe next time she saw Dark Marks it wouldn't be enchanted metal floating lifelessly in the air, but Tuney and Mum and Dad.

She put down her spoon and looked around. Her friends had been staring at her for quite a while, and Lily supposed she must have been making some kind of faces. Actually, it seemed everyone in the Great Hall was looking over towards the Gryffindor table, specifically the part that the seventh years were prone to occupy: Lily and her friends on the very edge of the table, and then the Marauders next to them, with Marlene and Mary as the bridge between the two wildly different groups: Marlene was always one to pull pranks and had struck up a friendship with Sirius early into her first year, and Mary knew that Remus took notes as careful and exhaustive as hers, and they would often switch their parchments to make sure neither had missed anything.

The Marauders seemed to not be in the mood to joke either that morning.

"D'you reckon they think it was us?" Peter worried, looking at James.

"No, Wormtail, are you daft? Why would my friends put curses right outside my own common room?"

"I dunno, it's usually that McGonagall goes straight to us when there's been something…"

"We wouldn't have done something like this," Sirius said somberly.

James wasn't listening anymore, looking at Lily. Then again, when wasn't he looking at Lily? It had become almost second nature to observe her, trying to memorize every last freckle.

Maybe she really did hate him now, and this year, this last year that he had one chance to change her mind, nothing would change. Lily Evans would go right on living her life, and he his, like they had never met at all. Somehow that made him feel queasy inside, a feeling that was far worse than seeing any amount of Dark Marks.

Suddenly Lily stood up, and James jumped, looking for something to do, not wanting Lily to know that he was staring. He ended up grabbing one of the books Remus had open all around him.

"Interested in dragon evisceration, are you?" a voice asked from behind him, and he recognized it as Lily almost at the same exact time that he fully registered what he'd been reading.

"No, I—" James sputtered, but he couldn't come up with a good excuse, so he shut up.

"Meet me _directly_ after classes tonight so we can discuss schedules," Lily sighed.

"Quidditch practice—" James said.

"Fine. Directly after Quidditch," she amended, and her green eyes flashed a warning at him, and James obeyed and nodded.

As soon as Lily had left, the Marauders all joined into a chorus of a teasing "ooooo." James shook his head and gave Remus back his book. He stood up, having lost his appetite a long time ago. It may have been his imagination, but it seemed as though Lily's friends were giggling as well.

! #$%^&amp;*

"We're not friends," were Lily's first words as soon as James appeared in the Heads' hallway. The Dark Marks had been removed and the suits of armor were gone as well, but there remained some sort of chill lingering in the area. "We're not dating," she continued. "I have no interest in _anything_ other than professional cooperation."

"Right…?" James said. He felt like he was walking on eggshells with Lily. Whenever they took a step forward and he felt like he could relax around her, he cracked one joke too many or did something wrong, and she snapped at him immediately. It suddenly occurred to him that maybe Lily was afraid of getting close to him, before dismissing the thought.

"But, while we work together, we should get to know each other," Lily conceded. "And… if you want to be my friend, you'll have to really earn it."

James nodded and saluted. "Yes, ma'am."

This might have been a little too much, though, because Lily shot him a mildly annoyed look.

"Walk with me," she said, heading off into the stairwell at a brisk pace. James noticed that she stopped in front of the Fat Lady, looking almost longingly.

"Are you going in?" James asked.

"Don't know the password… It isn't my common room anymore," she said.

"You're Head Girl, I'm sure you can—"

But Lily was already heading into the stairwell, and James followed, questions jumbling around in his mind. When he caught up to Lily after jogging a little, he asked her, "Do you miss living there?"

"Don't you?" Lily said.

"I suppose… It feels like something's over, but it's also something else beginning, you know? A new chapter."

Lily snorted. "You should make greeting cards."

James smirked a little. Once he got used to Lily's acerbic style, talking to her wasn't all that bad.

They rounded a corner and entered a darker hallway. A gust of air rushed past them, and he noticed Lily tensing up. Maybe she was on edge since that morning, and that was why she'd wanted them to do their rounds together.

Finally reaching the library, Lily let out a slow breath. Here a few torches cast a faint glow across the hallway, and Lily switched off the light on her wand, muttering "_Nox._"

Suddenly, there was a creaking noise, and Lily let out in a rush, "_Expecto Patronum!_"

A bird flew out of her wand, and, finding nothing to fight, came to perch on the wood of her wand like it was a tree branch.

"Nice Patronus. What is it?" James asked.

"A platypus. What does it look like?" Lily asked, craning her neck around, obviously still looking for the source of the disturbance.

She saw nothing and turned back to James, somewhat more calm. "It's some kind of bird. What about you, can you make one?"

James closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. "_Expecto Patronum_," he said, and a beautiful stag trotted up to Lily, nuzzling at her hand.

A smile suddenly lit up her face, and James found himself grinning widely too. The Patronuses' warm, happy energy seemed to cheer up the dark, dreary hallway, making the two Heads giddy.

Another sound rang across the hallway, like a dull thump, and the two snapped up to attention, but this time neither was afraid; they were filled with a kind of calm confidence, and Lily led the way into the library.

_"Lumos,"_ she said, and she shined the light into the eyes of two terrified Ravenclaws. They seemed to be first or second years, and they were carrying large stacks of books.

"It's after hours! What are you doing here?" Lily asked sharply.

"Th-these books were restricted and we didn't have a note, Professor Flitwick thought we were crazy, and Professor Slughorn gave us detention for asking, but we're going to invent a new potion that can repel the killing curse so that You-Know-Who can't get us—" one boy confessed.

Lily sighed. "You're perfectly safe in Hogwarts," she said out of habit, but then felt a wave of strange guilt when she realized she didn't fully believe it herself. "Put those back, and go back to your dormitories."

She was about to go and tell them that she wouldn't tell, sympathizing with their good intentions, but James said quietly, "Fifty points from Ravenclaw. You'll be explaining those lost points to your House mates. And if you're so afraid of You-Know-Who, why are you out wandering the halls at night, especially after what happened this morning?"

The girl's lip trembled, but James was impassive. "Now, go."

They scurried away, and Lily frowned at James. "They were just trying to invent a potion, you know you did that and worse at their age—"

"But I'm Head Boy now. And they need to learn. There's a war going on outside, they shouldn't take it so lightly."

Lily found she had no answer to that. The warmth from earlier was quickly draining away, and she found that both the bird and the stag had dissolved. She shivered slightly.

"Let's go," James said.


	6. Chapter 6

Lily didn't feel warm again until she'd nestled under a blanket next to the roaring fire of the Heads' common area. She was sure it was warm outside in early September, but something about the cold stones of the castle made it feel like it was winter all year. And there was some kind of storm brewing, too, with dark clouds that had been looming angrily in the horizon. It matched Lily's first week of school: everything was going wrong.

She took out a piece of parchment and wrote the familiar heading: "Dear Mum and Dad," before pausing. How would she twist reality and keep the conflict a secret?

_It's been rather stressful to be Head Girl these two days, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. My classes seem challenging but interesting, and I have my hands full with everything here. I'll send another letter soon. Send news from home, and don't forget to feed the owl, it'll be hungry after traveling. _

_Lily_

"Are you angry?" James asked, and Lily suddenly looked up, before realizing that she was practically hiding under a thick blanket like a little child. She tossed it off immediately, straightening up from her curled-up position.

"What?"

"You seemed… odd. After the library."

"I don't think you should be that tough on first-years! They're all scared and they've heard all sorts of rumors about Dark wizards from their friends. Besides, I find it extremely hypocritical to scold them when you're practically the biggest troublemaker in the school."

"Is that what you think of me?"

Lily sighed at his wounded demeanor. "Isn't it what everyone thinks of you?"

James didn't answer, instead staring at the fire.

She looked back down at her letter, and couldn't think of anything else to say that wasn't worrying or an outright lie. "Barley!" she called out, and the barn owl came fluttering down from her room.

Lily had gotten him as an owlet, and had trained him to come back to her room by dark, and he was free to hunt by day. He had never gotten used to the Owlery as Lily had had him before coming to Hogwarts, and the old owl preferred to stay in her room.

Barley nipped at her finger in greeting, and stuck out his leg for Lily to tie the rolled-up parchment to. "Bring this home, yeah?" she said. Barley flapped his wings and Lily went over to the window to let him out. While she did this, she shot a backwards glance at James, who was still as a statue, looking gloomily into the fire.

She let out a little laugh just as Barley was hopping off the ledge, which startled both the boy and the bird, who fluttered anxiously in the air to regain his balance. "What?" James asking, looking at Lily, panicked.

"Don't be so dramatic," Lily said, still giggling. "_I'm James Potter_," she said, deepening her voice. "_Look at me, brooding and looking into the fire. Oh, woe is me_."

"I'm not exactly having a _great day_—" James ground out, but Lily was still laughing until she plopped down into her chair.

She covered herself in her blanket and busied herself handling her thick red hair, trying to coax it into a knot at the top of her head. For all her bite and bravado, Lily now wanted nothing more than to keep the peace with James.

They sat in comfortable silence while Lily seemed to be losing the battle with her hair.

"So," James said. "I think you said something about getting to know each other."

Lily dropped her hands, and her hair fell down over her shoulders again. "For Head duties purposes only," she warned.

James chose to ignore that last bit and plowed on, while Lily was reaching for the pile of books and parchment that she had left on a table next to the armchair she had now claimed for her own. "Who were you writing to?" he asked.

"My mum and dad," Lily said, dipping her quill into ink, never one to leave homework to the last minute.

"Right. Stupid question."

"It was," Lily agreed.

James thought for a while. "Don't you have any questions for me?"

"No," Lily said, unconcerned. "Golden boy, troublemaker, generally well-liked, rarely works, torments those less popular than him, and Quidditch star. That's all I need to know."

Lily was right, of course, but her comments still stung. "Right," James said. "Can't say that I've been the model student, but…"

"What, are you going to say that you still deserve sympathy? That you're not what you seem? Merlin, James, you do anything you want and people still seem to worship you. Others, meanwhile, have to constantly work for good marks, to be liked, to gain approval, and one mistake, and it's all down the drain," Lily said, scratching at her essay viciously.

James had no response to that. "Is that why you don't like me?"

Lily looked up. There was something about his tone that had tugged at her deep-rooted sense of empathy, and she put down her quill, biting her lip pensively.

"It's just… you have everything. Everything comes to you, and you seem to use it selfishly. Like that invisibility cloak, could've been used for things far better than sneaking down to the kitchens at night."

"You know about the…?"

"I'm not daft, Potter."

"Right…"

James wasn't sure what to focus on first: the fact that she still stubbornly called him by his surname, or that she had known about the cloak all these years. He felt a wave of guilt. His father had given it to him to protect himself, not for practical jokes. But James had been so caught up in being the bad boy. And Lily was right, he never seriously considered the consequences of his actions.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly said.

"For what?" Lily asked. She had gotten absorbed into her Charms essay, and it took her a minute to look up at James again.

"For… being that way, I suppose," James said with a sigh.

"Why are you apologizing to _me_?" Lily said with a snort, but there was a small smile on her face as she continued her writing.

! #$%^&amp;*

Lily woke up with the uneasy feeling of being watched, and as she slowly opened one eye, she saw a figure standing above her. "Aah!" Lily shouted, standing up suddenly, and sending a book, quills, parchment, and her ink flying. The ink broke with a tinkling sound and started to stain the rug violet.

"Sorry," James said sheepishly.

"_Why_ were you staring at me! That's not _normal_ behavior! _Reparo!_"

The glass of the inkwell stuck together, and what was left of the ink sealed inside it. "_Scourgify!_" she said, cleaning the carpet, before turning to James. "Well?"

"You fell asleep in that armchair, and… I wanted to see that you were all right."

"'Course I'm fine!" Lily huffed. "Why wouldn't I be? Doesn't mean you have to watch me sleep like some bloody psycho."

James nodded weakly while Lily went around, gathering what she'd knocked onto the floor. When everything had been put back into order, she glanced down at her rumpled shirt and lopsided skirt. She straightened her clothes out, deciding to just wear it again instead of bothering to change.

"Going to breakfast, lots to do," Lily muttered, tying her hair into a bun and holding it in place by sticking her wand there. James followed, trying to keep up with her manic pace.

"Aren't you afraid you'll accidentally blast your ears off?" James asked, looking at the precarious pile of hair.

Lily looked at him curiously. "No. And you know, you don't have to follow me around," she said, but she didn't seem to really mean it. "We've got to start sorting through the third years' permission slips by next Monday with forgery detection spells, then there are the Prefects' meetings schedules to work out, and Professor Slughorn has asked us to review the dates for his dinner parties—"

"Actually, I've got Quidditch tryouts tonight…" James said, holding his breath. Lily stopped clear in her tracks, and turned towards James, her eyes flashing. He didn't have the time to decide whether she was stunningly beautiful or utterly terrifying, because she'd said, in a very calm, very low voice, "What was that, Potter?"

"Sorry," he said, wincing in advance.

"I'm trying to run a student body here!" Lily exploded, throwing her arms up. "You are supposed to be my partner in doing this work, but it's all _Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch _with you!"

"Want to come?" James said, the words leaving his mouth before he could stop them. He saw Lily get rather red in the face, like she really was going to explode.

"No, I do _not_!" she hissed, before running down the stairs. James let out a long breath of air, then headed towards the Great Hall.


	7. Chapter 7

James sat at his usual spot in the Gryffindor table. He absently chewed on some toast while looking towards the younger Gryffindors, wondering which of them would be best for the Quidditch team. They all looked scrawny and helpless, huddling together and whispering. They had all taken to wearing some sort of green accessory, like a wristband or necklace. James had heard them talking: it was supposed to make them look like Slytherins in case You-Know-You invaded the castle.

"James," a voice said, calling him back from his reverie. Sirius was leaning forward, a grin on his face that had trouble written all over it.

"I've got a great idea for a prank. First, we break into Slughorn's office, then we look into his potions stores—"

"I'm Head Boy, Padfoot, I can't be pulling pranks with you lot anymore," James said irritably.

"_Head Boy_, my ass. Is that all you care about now?"

Remus looked up now, sipping primly at some tea, unsure of whether to intervene. Somehow, this ticked James off. "Can you act a little less… middle aged?" he demanded, looking at Remus.

"Hey, leave him alone! It's not our fault you're having problems with Lily!" Sirius said. He had guessed right, and James bristled, his hands curling into fists on the table. Now Peter and Remus were glancing over at the seventh year girls', and they saw Dorcas, Mary, Marlene, and Hestia, but no sight of Lily.

"Lily?" Marlene asked, leaning over unhelpfully, her blonde hair swinging behind her. "Haven't seen her this morning. Are we talking about her?"

James said "No" at about the same time as Sirius said "Yes."

Marlene seemed puzzled. "She's very busy, you know," she said, giving James a look.

"I _know_," James sighed. "And I'm the lazy idiot who never helps her, I get it. Thanks."

With that, James left the table. Sirius watched him go before turning to Marlene, who was biting her lip (anyone who'd known her long enough knew that this was the telltale sign that she was upset).

"It's not your fault," Sirius said. "He gets into these… _moods_, you know, and then nothing you say is right."

"About Lily…" Marlene said.

Sirius nodded, crunching on some bacon. "Ever since Lily, he's been insane."

Marlene noticed the way Sirius casually told her that his best mate was crazy like it was normal breakfast conversation, before shaking her head. She didn't want to say it, but ever since James, Lily had been insane too.

! #$%^&amp;*

Professor Slughorn cleared his throat when he passed James' potion, which was hissing like an angry cat. James knew Slughorn would never say anything to the Head Boy, who also happened to be in the Slug Club, but his potion was veering towards a complete disaster, and all he could do was desperately fan the deep purple fumes that were starting to rise up.

He turned to the girl next to him, Amelia Bones, who seemed to be handling her love potion well, the pale pink surface shivering and bubbling.

"D'you know what I did wrong?" he asked, stirring, which only seemed to aggravate the smoke.

"Dunno…" Amelia said, frowning at his cauldron. "Maybe you put it in the wrong order?"

James shrugged.

Suddenly, a tense, angry voice sounded from behind him, whispering, "You put rose _stems_ in with the rose thorns, Potter."

James turned around to see a furious-looking Lily. Her potion was almost violently pink, and heart-shaped bubbles floated up from her cauldron.

"Excellent, excellent," Slughorn had commented when he'd passed her.

"How do I fix it?" James whispered.

"Don't bother, just go play _Quidditch_," she almost snarled, taking a phial and uncapping it. James watched her delicately plunge the glass into her potion, and put the stopper back on.

James tried a different tactic. "How will I learn from my mistake if I don't try to fix it?"

He saw Lily hesitate, knowing that she was always one to try and teach people things.

"Lower the fire. Turn counterclockwise for two minutes. Add essence of marigold and powdered ginger root. Then raise the fire quickly."

James did as she said, seeing the color turn from a stormy gray to a bright gold and then a violent red, which seethed and foamed when he heated it to become a demure pink.

"Ah, much better, Mr. Potter! Surely it was only a temporary lapse, and you've fixed it wonderfully."

"Thank you, Professor."

He turned to shoot Lily an appreciative grin, but she had already gotten up. Her fire was off, and she was at the back of the classroom, putting unused ingredients back into Slughorn's stores.

James winced, wondering whether Sirius would really go through with his plan and steal from there. He hadn't listened far enough to hear what exactly Sirius planned to do, and he regretted it now.

Having finished his potion thanks to Lily, James busied himself with a phial, bottling up a small amount of his potion for Slughorn to grade. The other students were finishing too, each of them producing a small sample of potion that ranged from angry magenta to pinks that were so pale they verged on white.

James noticed there was one student who was still seated, stirring a cauldron, and it was a certain hook-nosed, greasy-haired someone who was looking at James sullenly.

"What?" James accused, holding Snape's gaze, but the Slytherin didn't answer. James frowned and waved his wand, scrubbing the table clean and sending the scraps of ingredients sailing into a dustbin.

When he looked up, Snape was still staring intently at him, all while stirring his potion, which was a dark green, with thick tendrils of smoke that smelled of pungent tree sap and tar.

"Looks like you've royally cocked up your love potion, Snivellus," James said.

"This isn't a love potion," Snape said, with deadly calm. "This is a new poison that I have created. If even a single drop of it were to touch your skin, you would be found dead in your sleep the next morning… of 'natural causes.'"

James felt a shiver run down his back, and the faces of the people he cared about most danced in front of him—Lily, Sirius, Remus, Peter… He imagined them being found lifeless in their beds one morning.

"Don't you threaten me," James snarled. He pushed past Snape and thought he heard the echoes of a slight snicker, but couldn't be sure.

! #$%^&amp;*

James was thoroughly worn out by that afternoon, but he was, after all, Quidditch captain, and there was a large gaggle of excited Gryffindors ready to try out for a position on the House team. A few first years were in a corner of the pitch, whacking each other with their broomsticks, and James shot them a doubtful look.

James tapped his wand on his throat, muttering, "_Sonorus_."

"EXISTING TEAM MEMBERS, HERE!" James shouted, his magically amplified voice bouncing around the pitch, and the students that had been previously zooming around the air changed courses and landed lightly near him.

He counted four, including himself, which was one less than the five players that were left from the previous year's team. "WHO'S MISSING?" James asked, accidentally blasting the question again. Everyone covered their ears, even the few Gryffindors who were in the stands watching. James tapped his throat again, "_Quietus._"

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"My ears," Dorcas Meadowes muttered weakly, clutching at her head.

"Where's Sirius?" James asked.

"Dunno," Dorcas answered, feeling the need to represent Sirius as she was the other Beater. "Haven't seen him today."

James remembered the row they'd had that morning and he smacked himself internally. It seemed so long ago now, and he wished they could move on from it, having forgotten all about it already, but it seemed Sirius had taken it very personally.

"All right… It doesn't matter, we'll go on without him," James said, running both hands through his hair.

"Are we letting someone else try out for Beater?" Fabian Prewett asked.

"No! He's staying as Beater."

Someone grumbled something about favoritism, but James had already turned to the small crowd that was waiting anxiously on one end of the Quidditch pitch.

"_Sonorus,_" James muttered again, before turning to the hopeful Gryffindors.

"WE ARE IN NEED OF TWO NEW PLAYERS," James shouted. "A CHASER AND A KEEPER. IF YOU WANTED A DIFFERENT POSITION, PLEASE LEAVE."

There was a collective groan, and James frowned, knowing that many of them probably wanted to be Seeker, but James wasn't going to let go of sixth-year Benjy Fenwick, who had trained with the team for five years.

"CHASER TRYOUTS, TO THE LEFT. KEEPER TRYOUTS, TO THE RIGHT," James yelled, as the group separated into two.

A young, toothy boy asked, "What if I want to do both?"

James glowered at him and that was all the answer he needed, shuffling meekly to the Chaser side. James nodded at a few fourth and fifth years that he knew, before going to pick up a Quaffle. He tossed it to Fabian, a fellow Chaser, like James, who caught it expertly.

"KEEPERS, GO TO FABIAN. BLOCK THREE OF HIS GOALS. CHASERS, WITH ME, AND WE'LL PRACTICE PASSING THE QUAFFLE."

James throat was starting to feel sore as he went to get a second Quaffle. He mounted his broom, the Quaffle nestled under his arm like it was second nature, and kicked off, rising up into the air. The others were getting their brooms ready, including a few of the first-years, who looked like they were scared to actually go up into the air.

To pass the time while the others joined him, James flew in lazy circles, observing the Quidditch pitch, and feeling the cool breeze ruffle his hair. There were a few smudges of black-and-red on the stands that he took to be Gryffindor spectators, and he flew a little lower, trying to find Sirius so he could have a proper chat with him.

He saw someone waving to him down below, and James saw that it was Marlene, who was just a flash of blonde from that distance. Squinting into his glasses, James saw another figure next to her, who was pulling her flailing arm down. This indistinct figure was bright red, and before James could think, he let out a gasp.

"LILY?"

James covered his mouth as soon as he'd said it. He had forgotten about the Amplifying Charm, and every single Gryffindor looked up at James, having heard it like a freakishly loud bellow.

James cleared his throat, which again rang out across the pitch, before using the counter charm. He flew down to where Marlene and Lily were, the latter with her arms crossed, looking very unhappy.

"And _why_ did you have to blast that across all of Hogwarts?" she asked, frowning at him.

"I was surprised. I didn't think you'd come," James said, shrugging.

"Oh, and believe me, I'd much rather be in the castle doing something _productive_, but…"

"Big Bad Marlene forced you to come, yes, we know," her friend said, laughing.

"Did you see Sirius?" James asked, looking at Marlene.

"Yeah, and he has a message for you," she answered.

"Yes…?"

"It's very long, and not very polite, but I remember a lot of 'tell him to sod off, the bloody wanker,'" Marlene said serenely.

"Great," James sighed.

"Well, go on, they're all waiting for you," Lily said, pointing up at the swarm of Gryffindors that were hovering in the air.

"Right," James said.

"Yeah, don't get too _distracted_," Marlene giggled. Lily whacked her, and James, not sure how to react, kicked off towards the waiting students.


	8. Chapter 8

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_Today Professor Slughorn was very pleased with my potion, I think I'll get good marks for that one. I'm settling into this new school year, finally. Speaking of Professor Slughorn, he's invited me to one of his parties, remember I told you about them? Marlene's been saying that she wants to help me get a new dress for the occasion. I suppose I'll have to show it to you during Christmas break._

Lily bit her lip, racking her brain for more useless information to fill her letter. Finding nothing, she signed it _Love, Lily_, and tied it onto Barley's leg. She looked over at James, who was sitting by the fire, scribbling onto some parchment, though Lily couldn't tell whether it was a letter, homework, or something entirely different.

James looked up at her, and Lily looked away, wishing he hadn't seen her staring. Lily cleared her throat, and said, to dispel the awkwardness, "So, who did you pick?"

"What?" James asked, looking blankly at her.

"Quidditch," Lily said with a huff, regaining some of her senses.

"Oh. Well, there's this possible Keeper, his name's Michael McGonagall."

"McGonagall?"

"Her very nephew. I suppose I'll have to let him join, or she'll fail me in Transfiguration," James said with a chuckle.

Lily fell silent again. "I wonder if something's up with Barley… He hasn't brought a letter back, maybe he's dropped it? He's getting old."

"How old is Barley?" James asked.

"Eight years old," Lily said.

James was silent, and Lily hugged herself. She couldn't imagine losing her beloved barn owl, her link to her first year of Hogwarts. At that time, there was no threat of a wizarding war, no dark clouds that seemed to constantly gather in the horizon. In fact, all Lily could remember of her childhood were balmy summer days and cobalt skies.

"Maybe I shouldn't have sent him out on that long trip," Lily said, biting her lip.

"He'll be fine," James said, but even with the warmth in his voice, he couldn't manage to sound convincing.

Lily got up, deciding that she could start Professor Kettleburn's essay the next night. She climbed up the stairs that didn't seem quite so cold and ancient now that they were being lived in, and entered her minty green room.

She let herself flop onto her grass-themed bed and stared up at the ceiling. Now missing one bird, she conjured up another, whispering "_Expecto Patronum_." She had to try three times to summon the usual crispness of the Hogwarts letter on her mother's checkered tablecloth, but once she had it, the small, silver bird started in circles around her head.

Lily felt its warmth surround her, and she fell asleep on top of her bed, fully clothed, too tired to worry any more.

! #$%^&amp;*

Her alarm woke her and Lily groaned, not wanting to get up and get dressed. She stood up slowly, but found, to her surprise, that she didn't feel the usual cold of the stones on the soles of her feet. It was only when she looked down that she saw that, for the second time that week, she'd gone to sleep in her clothes.

Lily sighed and decided, this time, to actually change. She picked out some clothes, more for comfort than for fashion, and started peeling yesterday's clothes off, before replacing them with new ones. She began to feel clean and ready for the day once she'd brushed her teeth and run a comb through her hair, and she trotted downstairs.

James was still stretching and yawning in his armchair, knocking down the book that had lain open on his torso. "Must've fallen asleep here," he muttered when he saw Lily.

"You're going to be late," she said with a frown.

"Go on without me," James said, another yawn overtaking his face.

Lily pushed the heavy, wooden door and found herself in the hallway. The silence hit her like a slap. She hadn't noticed how full of sound Hogwarts in the morning was until it was missing. She had the eerie feeling that it must be the middle of the night though the shining sun proved otherwise.

Lily ran down the hall and looked down towards the staircase. Not a single student was in sight going down to breakfast, and the Fat Lady was missing from her portrait. Lily sprinted back to the Heads' dormitory, to find James, when she saw Professor McGonagall, looking grave.

"We've lost a student, and the Headmaster requests the Head Boy and Girl attend a meeting, immediately," she said, her voice wavering.

"Ginger root," Lily said, and the door swung open. "James?" she shouted.

James appeared at the doorway, still in a similar state of undress to before. He looked at Lily and then at McGonagall, and went wordlessly to get his robes. Lily felt a wave of fear hit her, as she processed the meaning of the word "lost."

Was it someone she knew?

James appeared, hastily dressed, and they all walked in tense silence towards Dumbledore's office.

! #$%^&amp;*

"Her name was Felicia Tipman. Hufflepuff. Muggle-born. Seems to have died in her sleep," Dumbledore said.

"Then it's natural causes," Professor Slughorn blustered, clearly wanting to close the discussion as fast as possible. "No need to investigate."

"That may be so," Dumbledore said sharply. "But Felicia was a healthy twelve-year-old, who deserved much more time to live, and certainly deserves our fullest investigation."

Slughorn didn't answer, his head bowed. The other teachers began to murmur, and discomfort rippled through the room. Suddenly, someone spoke up.

"It was Severus Snape!"

Lily looked at James, open-mouthed. How could he continue his little feud with Severus, when something so serious had just happened?

James looked straight towards Dumbledore, aware that all eyes in the room were on him.

"Please, explain," Dumbledore said calmly enough, but with a distinct edge to his voice.

James could feel the heat of Lily's furious glare, but he focused on Dumbledore. "Yesterday, in Potions, he was brewing a poison that could kill you in your sleep—he even told me, showed me!" James said, his voice rising as he spoke.

"Nonsense!" Professor Slughorn cried out. "My boy, I graded his sample of love potion myself!"

"He could've easily switched it out! Or have done both at once!" said James.

"Mr. Potter—" Slughorn began, but Dumbledore cut him off.

"This is no time for childish grudges, Mr. Potter. I want you to be very certain of what you are saying," Dumbledore warned.

"I am, Professor Dumbledore," he said.

Before another bout of arguing, Dumbledore swept over to Lily. "I had called you both here to ask you whether any of you had seen anything of use. It seems Mr. Potter has his very strong convictions. Anything from you, Miss Evans?"

"_No_, I have no one to blindly accuse," Lily said heatedly.

"Then it seems you are free to go. And, of course, your duty over the next few days is to reassure the other students. Don't let their worries get out of hand."

And with that, the two found themselves in the hallway outside.

"How _could _you? Accusing him of murder?" Lily asked, her voice shaking. "This—this is beyond pranks and teasing, this is—"

"Lily! I saw it! He practically told me he was going to use it!" James said, frustrated. "Why do you still defend him, after what he did to you?"

"I'm not defending him!" Lily shouted. She had gone all white, her freckles shockingly visible against her skin, and her fists clenched. "And while we're talking about what he did to me, that's nothing compared to all _you_ did over the years, Potter!"

Lily stormed off for the second time that week. James didn't bother going to the Great Hall because there was no way he was in the mood to eat.


	9. Chapter 9

Lily refused to do anything except read the _Daily Prophet _that morning. Marlene peered at her anxiously, but Lily didn't acknowledge her friend. She scanned the news, reading between the lines to see how things were going outside.

On the front page was a drab article about international cauldron standards, but Lily knew that the real information would be found in little articles towards the back, where journalists had managed to slip through news of You-Know-Who's takeover, though the main press wanted to insist that everything was perfectly fine.

She saw it in the announcement that the heads of three Ministry departments had decided to retire, though two of them looked quite young in their photos. Then, in a corner of the next page, wedged between something about railroads and a report on dragon scale prices increasing, were the words, "Charges dropped in Lestrange case."

_In a London street, two hundred Muggles were killed. Mr. Rabastan Lestrange, present at the scene, was the subject of an inquiry, but was cleared of all charges yesterday. It was determined to be a Muggle accident, and authorities have dealt with the relatives of the victims._

Lily's eyes widened. Two hundred people had died? And the article hadn't mentioned how it had happened… Lily doubted that such destruction could have happened from Muggle carelessness.

That, with the fact that Ministry officials were quietly leaving their positions, no doubt to be replaced by Death Eaters, meant that things were not going well at all. Lily felt a knot of worry tie itself firmly in her stomach. She read through the rest of the newspaper, but found nothing else.

Marlene gently touched Lily's arm, and Lily looked up to see her friend's stricken face. "Did you know Felicia?" Marlene asked.

"No," Lily said, feeling hollow. Might she have seen her in the halls, or in a Quidditch match, a small second-year face in the crowd, and never have fully registered her? Lily doubted that she'd never laid eyes on her, with all the students she'd led into Common Rooms and seen in her rounds of the school.

"I did," Marlene said. "Professor Rabnott wanted me to start a DADA study group with first through third years."

"I'm sorry," Lily said. She knew it sounded empty, and Marlene looked down. "Things are getting worse outside," she continued. "The Ministry officials are retiring, along with mass killings of Muggles where no one seems to be punished. I think there's really a war going on."

"A war?" Hestia asked, now engaged in the conversation. "Well, then, what do we do?"

"We don't do anything, we're students, barely overage," Lily sighed.

Marlene had perked up. "No, Hestia's right. We need to do something! We're the next generation, we're the ones who will be fighting, too."

Mary, in her corner, shuffled her pile of notes. "We should ask Professor Rabnott. Maybe she can teach us some practical things."

Lily shook her head. There was something infectious about her friends' enthusiasm to fight, true, but what could a band of five school-age girls achieve in the grand scheme of things? The conversation died down as the first class of the day approached, and Lily stood up, gathering her books for Charms.

She waved at her friends, and it wasn't until she was nearing Professor Flitwick's room that she remembered that James would be there, too. She had no desire to see him after their fight, but skiving was not an option as Head Girl.

She pushed the door open and felt the heavy hush that the morning's news had left, like a heavy blanket, over the students. She took her seat near the back of the classroom, hoping to go unnoticed and get through this quickly. Professor Flitwick wasn't there yet and, Lily noted, neither was James.

Both observations were good news, and Lily began to straighten out her supplies, setting a fresh piece of parchment on her desk and dipping her quill into her inkwell, ready to write the date at the top.

"Did you hear the news, Head Girl?" a sly voice said from behind Lily. She bristled, recognizing Rookwood's voice.

Lily glanced behind her, and saw that next to him was Mulciber, grinning like an idiot in response to Rookwood's taunting. She sighed and started to write, in her loopy script, _Lily Evans, Charms_, when she heard them again.

"They're killing Muggles in London. And now in Hogwarts. Good, I say," Rookwood continued. "We need to clean up the wizarding population—can't be letting that filth run willy-nilly among us. What do you think, Evans?"

Lily squared her shoulders.

"Good thing we still have _plenty_ more so that others can be cleansed… through natural causes," Rookwood said.

Lily turned around, unsure of whether she had heard right. Plenty more? She remembered, queasily, what James had said that morning. But they hadn't mentioned any potion… Neither of the two Slytherins were looking at her now, both having taken a sudden interest to their parchments.

"Hello, class," said Professor Flitwick's squeaky voice, and Lily turned around, unable to shake her uneasy feeling.

Her suspicions were confirmed that night when, still ostensibly angry with her, she did her rounds of the castle without James. The hallways seemed to stretch out to disproportionate lengths in the dark, and she wanted desperately to go back to bed, the homework she'd neglected the night before weighing on her mind.

She heard a noise that sounded like footsteps, but could've also been the castle's usual creaking. Lily drew out her wand, muttering, "_Lumos_."

Suddenly, she found herself face-to-face with Severus Snape.

"I wanted to talk to you," Snape panted. "I thought you'd be doing your rounds here."

"Stay away from me," Lily warned, her wand drawn in front of her. "I know you have that poison. I'm not letting you touch me."

"Lily, it wasn't me. You've got to believe me."

"Wasn't you?" she repeated. "I heard Rookwood _bragging _about it! It was murder, do you realize that? An innocent girl was _murdered_!"

"They must have taken it from me! I would never—"

"Oh, and I suppose you just _happened_ to be making a poison for your own enjoyment, Snape? Twenty points from Slytherin!" Lily spat. "Now go to your dormitory, it's past curfew."

"Who's taking points from Slytherin?" a voice asked, before three more Slytherins appeared: Mulciber, Rookwood, and Malfoy.

"_I _am," Lily said, willing her voice to be steady. "And you're all out after curfew."

"Are we?" Malfoy said, with his posh, velvety voice. Lily noticed that his wand was drawn, and so were the other Slytherins', who were slowly making a semicircle around her.

"Was this your plan, Snape?" she hissed. She realized what was happening, and this time, this was a real threat. Taking all the points from Slytherin wouldn't help her now, and Lily realized that she could be the next body found in the morning.

"Let's just talk this out," Lily said, soothingly, lowering her wand a little. The others looked at each other, and Lily cried out, "_Confringo! Protego!_"

The carpet at their feet and a nearby suit of armor exploded, and Lily took advantage of the little cover that her Shield Charm offered her to run out of the hallway. She took two rights in a row, then a left, barely noticing where she was going. She could hear their footsteps hurrying after her, and Lily ran into a small hallway off of the main one, quickly casting a Disillusionment Charm on herself. She pressed against the wall, next to a suit of armor, and felt the cold sensation of the spell washing over her. She sent red sparks out into the large hallway ahead of her, and waited as the Slytherins reached where she was.

She held her breath, hoping they would only glance quickly into this hallway and follow the red sparks. Mulciber peeked in, and Lily shut her eyes, her wand ready in case she had to take him on.

Luckily, he turned away, and called to the others, "I think she went ahead." Lily barely had time to catch her breath before another face was looking into where she was hidden, magically camouflaged. It was Snape, and he looked for a long time, so long that Lily was sure he'd seen her. But after a few painful minutes, he left, saying nothing to the others.

As soon as their footsteps had faded, Lily ran out of her hiding spot, and didn't stop running until she was in front of her common room. "_Ginger root_," she breathed, and the door swung open, with James behind it.

"Hello," he said stiffly, but Lily took him by surprise when she burrowed into his arms and stood, shaking, in this strange sort of hug.

"You were right, it was Snape," she said.

"What happened?" James asked, closing the door behind them. Lily disentangled herself, and let herself take a few deep breaths before sitting in her usual chair next to the fire, with James next to her in his, and telling him everything.

James nodded, frowned, and even let out an outraged "_What?_" at all the right moments, until Lily felt she had let out all the anxiety and could really breathe normally again.

"We have fight back," James said, and somehow, when he said it, it seemed much more convincing that her friends' half-baked plans.

"We'll figure it out later," Lily said. "Right now… I've got homework to do."

"You can do it tomorrow," James said. "Go on to bed, I think fighting the Slytherins warrants a night off."

Lily flashed one of her puzzling half-smiles that always made James wonder, and started to climb up the stairs. "I'm glad you're all right," he added, when she was almost up to the top of the stairs.

"Thanks," Lily said softly, and the door closed, leaving James with a mess of emotions he wasn't sure how to sort out yet.

In her room, Lily felt the feeling of James' comfort fading, and her mind began to reel with all the possibilities. What if she hadn't managed to escape? What if Snape or Mulciber had seen? What if they'd chosen a different victim that night, instead of her?

As was now her habit, Lily conjured up her Patronus, closing her eyes as she muttered the incantation and did the familiar wand movement. She let out one long breath, and opened an eye. She was startled by the glowing mass in front of her, thinking that her bird had swelled to the size of a large dog, or a small horse. Looking better now, it was looking distinctly horselike, with four legs.

Her slight panic made the large form flicker and die. Had she done the spell wrong? "_Expecto Patronum_," she said again, and this time, there was no mistake. It was from her wand that the large creature came, all four, long, delicate legs, and big, thick-lashed eyes.

The silvery doe stared into the wide eyes of Lily Evans.


	10. Chapter 10

Lily ran to the library that morning, rushing past James with no more than a hurried hello. The library was empty this early in the morning, except for a few eager Ravenclaws that were poring over large books.

The Spells and Enchantments section was full of ancient, dusty volumes once you got past the schoolbooks and simple theory. Titles such as "The Origins of Magicke" and "Charms of Olde" dotted the shelves, and Lily pulled out a few books she hoped would explain this all away.

She arrived in front of the librarian with _Advanced Magical Theory,_ _Protective Anti-Dark Arts Spells,_ and _Secrets of the Soul: What Our Spells Can Tell Us. _While waiting for her name to be added to the list of students who'd borrowed books, Lily looked at her Muggle watch and groaned. She only had twenty minutes left before class, and a fierce growling was already fighting its way out of her stomach. She thanked the librarian, and shoved the books into her bag, running down towards the Great Hall, looking left and right hoping that no one would see the Head Girl acting so very unprofessionally.

The books weighed her down, and Lily was once again reminded of the night before. Patronuses were unique to each person, Lily knew, and they seemed to reflect the caster's personality. Did that mean that her personality had suddenly changed from one day to another? Lily remembered Snape's face staring into the hallway where she was hidden, and hoped that running for her life from the Slytherins hadn't changed who she was.

Lily sat next to her friends, looking glum, which had become her normal state these days. She'd have asked them for advice, but they couldn't produce Patronuses, and Lily would never have been that insensitive.

She said good morning to Marlene, Hestia, Dorcas, and Mary, before buttering her toast and trying to smile. "Lily," Marlene said anxiously. "I have a Muggles studies essay to write. You've got to explain this 'post office' thing to me."

"Well," Lily began. "It's like owl post, but there are Muggles who are paid to carry the mail and bring them to the houses."

"_Muggles paid to be owls,_" Marlene muttered, adding to her notes. "But how do they know where an address is? What if they don't find it? Who do they ask? Is there someone in charge of that?"

Lily shrugged, overwhelmed with questions. "They just… know where things are, I dunno. And mail does get lost sometimes."

Marlene shook her head and scribbled some more onto her parchment. Lily bit her lip, remembering her own essay, due at the end of the week, that she hadn't started. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and bit into her toast, chewing in an almost resigned manner.

James looked down just before Lily turned around, and he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Luckily, she seemed not to have noticed his intense staring, which was all the better. She seemed engrossed talking to Mary McDonald, so James turned towards the Marauders.

"Lily's been acting strange today," James said, and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Potter News, for our daily report on Lily Evans," he said sarcastically. James shot a well-aimed kick under the table, which landed squarely on Sirius' shin and caused Black to howl in pain.

"Don't be so dramatic," James sighed.

"What did she do that was weird?" Peter asked eagerly.

"Yesterday she said the Slytherins chased her down the halls and then she _hugged_ me for a really long time, and this morning she rushed out and barely looked at me."

"Maybe it's_ that time of month_—" Sirius suggested, and this time it was Remus who shot him a warning look. Sirius shot a careless smile at the pale, scarred boy, before turning on James, more serious now.

"What was the bit about the Slytherins, though?" Sirius asked, poking at his bacon.

James looked over at the quietest table of the Great Hall, where all the green-robed students seemed to be hunched over, plotting. Or maybe it was his paranoia.

He dropped his voice. "You know the girl who died? Snape did it. He showed me his poison that could kill someone in their sleep."

There was a delicate _clink _ as Remus put his cup of tea down. "_What?_"

"He said he invented it. He was brewing it in Potions, but Slughorn didn't believe me."

"You told Professor Slughorn?"

"Actually," James said sheepishly, "I told all of the teachers, Dumbledore included." James waited for Remus to say that he was insane and shouldn't go around telling his crazy theories to the teachers.

"You shouldn't have done that, now Snape knows you're onto him," Remus said.

"You… you believe me?"

"'Course we do," said Sirius, who'd been listening. "Right, Pete?"

"Yeah!" Peter said. He would believe anything James said, and that thought hung heavy and unspoken over the Marauders for a moment.

"Well, what do we do now?" James said, breaking the tension.

"Find out what their endgame is—why kill a second-year Hufflepuff girl? What do they want out of this?" Remus said.

"Then we get in, take the poison, show it to Dumbledore, and servee justice for Felicia," Sirius said, banging a fist on the table, which turned out to be quite loud.

The seventh year girls who sat further down the table suddenly looked up at them, startled, and Sirius froze, his fist still in the air.

"Don't mind us," Sirius said, flashing a smile, and Marlene cocked an eyebrow that looked like it was meant just for him.

James thought he heard Lily say something about postmen's uniforms, though he was almost certain he must have heard wrong, and tore his mind away from the huge, blinking distraction that was Lily Evans.

"We'll need to plan more carefully if we want to do this," Remus said.

"Right," James nodded. "I can come over to the dormitory after our rounds."

Sirius smirked at the mention of 'their' rounds, and James had to fight the urge to kick him again.

! #$%^&amp;*

Lily could barely meet James' eyes that night at rounds, but after what had just happened, she was adamant that they would do their rounds together. She nodded awkwardly at him, fumbling with the hem of her sweater, while James looked at her strangely. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but knowing Lily, he was afraid she would get angry.

"Right, let's do our rounds," James said, setting off down the hallway. Lily lit her wand and walked beside him, apparently lost in thought. James tried to think of things to say to her, but suddenly discomfort hung between them, as thick and heavy as pudding.

"Is everything all right?" James finally blurted out, and Lily stopped in her tracks next to him. He cursed mentally and called himself all sorts of names for doing the one thing he shouldn't have, all while eyeing Lily apprehensively.

"No, nothing is right!" she said, and it sounded like a wail, almost pitiful. "They're killing Muggles in London—they're killing Muggleborns in Hogwarts—and now the Slytherins are practically joining the Death Eaters, still in school, and—"

She stood there, breathing deeply, her arms hugged around herself. The last thing that was bothering her, she couldn't quite bring herself to say. James reached forward, ready to try his luck for a second hug in two days.

Lily seemed startled when she suddenly found herself in James' arms, but she let herself relax and breathe deeply. This wasn't anything. This was something friends did—all friends hugged in times of stress.

But somehow is seemed like much more than a perfunctory act. James smelled like cinnamon and wood and something she recognized from shops that sold Quidditch brooms in Diagon Alley, and she could feel herself melting into those smells.

She let go before her mind could keep spinning the way it had been, and stepped back, unsure about whether James would take this opportunity to ask her out for the two hundredth and seventy-sixth time, but his lips were pressed together in something Lily recognized as concern.

"Let's go," he said quietly, and Lily nodded.

They walked silently through empty hallways, feeling like they were gliding over the stone, or swimming through something solid that was filling the empty space all around them. Lily felt James' presence next to her like a tangible, pulsing feeling, like all the energy around them was concentrated into him, and it was all she could do to keep looking straight ahead.

He was an arrogant toerag—a tormentor and a bully—an empty-headed pretty boy who only cared about fun and Quidditch—but somehow, Lily didn't quite believe all her old assumptions about James. Which left her in a strange place, where she couldn't bring herself to hate him, and was now hugging him whenever she was upset.

Lily looked up and saw that they were back in the Gryffindor Tower. James had stopped in front of the Fat Lady, though they still had a few paces to go before they reached the Heads' Common Room.

"I'm spending the night here," James said, nodding his head towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Oh," Lily said dumbly, still not completely recovered from her internal reverie. She cleared her throat. The prospect of being in the tower by herself seemed like the least inviting thing in the world at the moment. "You know, I might just go as well. I've been meaning to visit."

James smiled at her and Lily wasn't sure what exactly she felt inside, something between dismay and elation that felt like she wasn't functioning anymore. She shook her head slightly—calm down, Lily, she thought.

James turned to the Fat Lady. "Head Boy and Girl," James said.

"Oh, all right," said the Fat Lady with a resigned sigh.

James placed his hand on the portrait, but stopped when he heard Lily call, "Wait."

She seemed to think through what she was going to tell him, and finally, she said, "I have a… a question. About Patronuses."

"Yeah?" James said, and Lily steadied herself—she couldn't have remembered it right from that evening, all she really knew was that it had four legs. It could've just as easily been a horse.

"What's yours?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"Oh, it's a stag," James said, pushing the portrait into the Gryffindor Common Room, while Lily stood frozen in the hallway.


	11. Chapter 11

Marlene and Hestia were yelling at each other, in the middle of a heated argument, while the other two girls sat quietly in their beds, Mary with a book, as usual, and Dorcas folding her Quidditch robes on the bed. When Lily swung the door open and walked in wordlessly, the shouting match stopped, and the two smiled at Lily as though nothing had happened.

"Lily!" Marlene squealed, running to attack her friend with a hug.

The red-haired girl seemed numb, and after disentangling herself from Marlene, she went over to the empty bed. It had acquired a layer of junk, from Honeydukes sweets wrappers and crumpled paper to what looked like—underwear? Lily didn't bother to investigate and swept everything out of the way in one smooth motion,

"_Accio library books_," she said, pointing out the window. If she remembered correctly, she'd left the window to her room open. She had, and the three books whizzed into the room and landed with three thumps on the bed. Lily sat down and picked up _Secrets of the Soul_, paging to the table of contents. She found a chapter on Patronuses, and flipped to that page.

Her friends watched her anxiously as she opened the book, and skimmed over a few pages, before stopping and reading something carefully. Lily let out a little shriek and threw the book onto the floor, before turning and burying herself under the covers.

Mary was closest to the book, that had fallen open. She picked it up and read "_The Patronus and True Love._" Handing it to Dorcas and Hestia to read, as Marlene had already gone over to Lily, trying to coax her out.

"What's wrong, Lily?" Marlene asked, peeling the covers back and brushing Lily's hair out of her face.

Lily mumbled something unintelligible and Marlene had to lean closer to hear. With little improvement in terms of clarity, she repeated it a second time, "myPatronusmeansPotterismytruelove," but Marlene had been waiting so long to hear it that she immediately let out a whoop of rejoicing.

"We have our Mrs. Potter!" Marlene shouted to the room, twirling around a bit.

"_Shut up!_" Lily yelled back, now wearing the covers around herself like a cape, so that her face was only barely visible.

"What's this?" Dorcas asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"'A Patronus can changed in times of great personal change. This change can be a negative one, as in the previously discussed case of a death or personal loss, but it can also be positive,'" Mary read from the book. "'It has been observed that in cases of what can be called 'true love,' Patronuses change to realign themselves with the other's form, as the representation of person in love's soul has changed along with their soul itself.'"

Marlene was grinning widely, and comprehension seemed to dawn on Hestia's face as well, as a mischievous smile began to bloom there. "Lily, d'you mean…?"

"Yes!" Marlene answered for her friend.

"Merlin's beard! Seven years we've been trying to get you to spit it out! And after all this time denying it!" Hestia exclaimed.

"It's a rather recent development," Lily called from her bed, but Hestia and Marlene were already talking over each other.

"The two Heads! They're _the_ school couple!"

"And they're already sharing a dormitory! How _convenient…"_

They burst into uncontrollable giggles, and Lily looked at them sourly. "Mary and Dorcas, you two are the only sane ones…"

"But… _James_?" Dorcas blurted out, before adding sheepishly, "Sorry, couldn't help it. But now, if he's ever being an ass in Quidditch practice, I have leverage…"

Mary shook her head in surprise as well, and it seemed the entire Common Room had been temporarily seized by a wave of madness. Finally, Hestia and Marlene's excitement waned, and they sat back into their respective beds.

"Done?" Lily asked irritably, still under her mountain-like blanket.

"You have to tell us _all of it_," Marlene said.

Lily hesitated, but there was something in her that desperately wished to be carefree, and return to the days when the five of them would stay up all night and talk. She held the room's attention, and even Mary wasn't lost in books or schoolwork.

"Well, I suppose it started when James stopped being an arrogant prick…"

! #$%^&amp;*

Remus was the designated note-taker, and he took a few minutes placing enchantments on the parchment. They'd perfected this sort of magic when they'd created their map, and Remus was, in a true professor-like manner, explaining the spells as he cast them.

"Now I'm going to do a counter-spell for any revealing charms… make it water and fire proof, while I'm at it… Let non-charmed inks write on it, then disappear in an hour, so we can pretend to do schoolwork on this…"

Finally, Remus muttered some incantations while tapping his inkwell and quill in turn.

"Right," James said grimly.

"What did you say the potion looked like?" Remus asked, dipping his quill into the ink resolutely.

"Dark green," James said, closing his eyes, "the smoke almost looked like… vines. And it smelled horrible."

Remus nodded, all while scribbling everything that James said. "Describe the smell."

James opened one eye. "I dunno, it smelled bad—" he started, but one of Remus' looks silenced him. "Pine… sap… tar… and something stronger, like… like fresh asphalt."

"Anything else?" Remus asked.

"No," James said.

The quiet Marauder surveyed the mess of scribbles that now adorned the enchanted parchment. "Well…" he started, and he sat there for a full minute, thinking it through. "It looks like he's used some plant ingredients… Venomous Tentacula, maybe? But he's added something else, something that kills _indirectly_ by weakening the body and causing it to fail naturally… very clever work."

"This is _Snape _you're slobbering over, don't praise his work!" Sirius exclaimed.

"It's foul and loathsome, but that doesn't make it any less of an effective invention. Snape used his wits to create something that fit his needs and he did it well. Let's not underestimate our enemy," Remus said.

"Is there an antidote?" Peter asked anxiously.

"That'll be difficult to find without the original potion," Remus muttered, looking down at his notes. "I can try to create an anti-plant potion, but it would have to be taken _before_ being poisoned, and there's no guarantee it wouldn't harm the person before they'd even get a chance to be poisoned…"

"That's it then. We've got to go to the Slytherin dungeons and steal the potion," James said.

"B-but—they're practically all Death Eaters now," Peter protested. "That'd be like walking right into You-Know-Who's—"

"It doesn't matter! Who knows who could be next? They're trying to get rid of all the Muggleborns, and no one is lifting a finger!" James exploded.

"Oh, of course this would be about Lily eventually," Sirius grumbled. "But he's right. We're Gryffindors, and Gryffindors don't sit around being afraid while people are dying."

"I'll get started on the anti-plant potion, then," Remus said. "And when we get the original, we can find an antidote." He muttered under his breath and the paper was wiped clean, like nothing had ever been written on it. Remus stored in a pocket inside his robes.

"And we're not even halfway through September," Sirius sighed, sinking down into his bed.


	12. Chapter 12

Snape rounded a corner and glanced behind him. He couldn't shake the prickly feeling in the back of his neck, like he expected to turn around and see someone pointing a wand straight at him. It was probably from lack of sleep. Snape couldn't remember a night where he hadn't stayed up into the next day since—well, since Lily had stopped talking to him. But that was entirely another story.

He stopped again, whipping around abruptly. He thought he saw a rustling, a flash of red. Snape felt anger rising up inside him—if it hadn't been his overactive, paranoia-fueled imagination, then it was certainly a Gryffindor. And since it was out of the question that Lily would be following him, then any Gryffindor in his vicinity meant a confrontation.

Snape pulled his wand out, practically bristling. He would find out if someone really was there._"Homenum Reve—"_

"Now, now, m'boy. No magic in the halls," Professor Slughorn said, clapping an enormous hand onto Snape's shoulder with a booming chuckle.

"Sorry, Professor," Snape muttered, gritting his teeth. Slughorn had every reason to like Snape, despite his less-than-cheerful manner, as he was arguably his best Potions student, among Slytherins at least. Snape had even suffered through a few meetings of his little club, where he had to be in the same room as Lily and Potter. He wasn't sure which of the two caused him more anxiety to see.

"Right, now I'm sure you've got homework to do—but I can rest assured that you've completed my essay already, yes?"  
"Yes, Professor," Snape said with a thin smile.

"Excellent," Slughorn said with a yellowish smile. "If you ever need more ingredients, just ask. My ingredients store is yours. The most promising potionmaker my House has seen in at least a century, you are!"

"Thank you, Professor," Snape said, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

"Now, run along," the professor said, and Snape obeyed, heading towards the dungeons.

When Snape's footsteps had well faded, Professor Slughorn turned towards the empty hallway. "Now, Potter, enough of this charade."

There was no answer, and Slughorn stroked his mustache irritably. "Don't be clever with me, now. The Head Boy should know better."

The invisibility cloak slipped away and James appeared, standing sheepishly in the middle of the corridor.

"An invisibility cloak? Now, where did you get that? That is a very _rare_ sort of magical item…" Slughorn said, his eyes suddenly shining.

Suddenly afraid that Slughorn would report him for having it, or try to take it for himself, James said quickly, "Oh, I enchanted a bed sheet."

"Well, that is excellent wandwork, Potter. Wouldn't have guessed it," Slughorn said, looking pleased, like the cloak was a personal achievement of his.

"Yes, see, sir," James said, sensing a way out, "I've been rather… upset since the death of that girl. Jumpy, even. I've taken to wearing this as a way to patrol the hallways without the other students knowing, so I can root out the misbehaving ones."

"Well, glad as I am to see you taking charge… these methods are less than conventional, Potter. I'd suggest you return to your common room and do your patrols _fully visible_ next time… understood?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you," James said with a smile. It wasn't for nothing that they said that James Henry Potter could charm his way out of just about anything.

! #$%^&amp;*

"What do you _mean_? We've all got to take turns following him, James! You can't back out now!"

"Slughorn's onto me, I think. If he catches me again, he'd take the cloak, report me… I'm Head Boy," James said, rubbing his temples.

"If you say _Head Boy_ one more time…" Sirius ground out.

Remus spoke up. "He's right, he's our way into the teachers, and the only one who's allowed out later than the rest."

"Maybe we can try to read Snape's mind," Peter said, but was thoroughly ignored.

"He's bound to notice he's being followed, and he'll keep his guard up," James said. "There's got to be a better way."

"I know what to do," Peter said, a little louder.

"What?" Sirius said irritably.

"Read Snape's mind."

"Ha," James snorted.

"Actually…" Remus said thoughtfully. "It's very advanced magic, but Legilimency might be worth a try…"

"Really?" Sirius said doubtfully.

"I've never really tried it," Remus said. "But there are books about it in the Restricted section, I'm sure."

James sighed. "Our plan is getting more and more complicated all the time." But it seemed no one had a better option.

! #$%^&amp;*

"You're planning on stopping Snape yourself?" Lily asked when they met up for rounds, and for one terrifying moment, James thought that Lily herself had used Legilimency and looked into her mind. In response to his stunned look, Lily added. "Sirius told Marlene and Marlene told me. And I want to help."

"You know how to do that sort of magic?" James asked.

"No… but…" Lily hesitated. "I used to know Snape well. So that might help."

James felt slightly queasy at being reminded how inseparable she and Snape used to be. "You don't have to—"

"Why? Why not? Why should I be any less capable than Remus?" Lily said, her hands on her hips now.

"Fine. Fine. I'll let you know when we're doing it. Mind you, we're most likely breaking wizard laws—I'm not sure it's legal and I have no intention of finding out."

"Legal?" Lily laughed. "The Ministry is a Death Eater-controlled image. There are no laws anymore. All's fair in love and war."

The sense of purpose that had gotten her through this exchange with James faded, and as she said the word "love," the memory of what she'd read in the book came crashing down on her, and she fell silent.

"W-well," Lily stammered. She took a deep breath, willing herself to look away from James. She talked out loud to herself loads of times, this couldn't be any different. Looking at the ceiling, she spoke to the vaulted stone. "Let's do the rounds, then."

James noticed her falter, but didn't understand why. He nodded, but remembering that Lily was looking pointedly away, said, softly, "Right. Let's go."


	13. Chapter 13

"Will you come to the next Quidditch match?"

Lily shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other as they paused in front of the Hufflepuff common room. "I dunno, I've got a lot of homework…"

"But it's Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. We have to squash those bookish losers," James said excitedly.

"A lot of my friends are Ravenclaws…" Lily warned.

James scoffed. "Like who?"

"Frank Longbottom, Lydia Clearwater, Adelaide Corner, Albert Boot…"

"Well, I'm sure they're very nice people. But we're going to destroy them and all the hopes in this next match," James said confidently, while Lily sighed deeply.

Suddenly, she whipped around, wand out. "Who is it?" she called out.

"Damn," a voice whispered, and James' eyes bulged out just at the same time that Lily shouted, "_Expelliarmus! Stupefy!_"

She ran over to discover Sirius, lying on his back and Stunned. James came running soon after. "Did you just Stun my best mate?"

"_Ennervate_," Lily waved her wand, and Sirius stood up slowly.

"Ow, my back," he complained.

"You shouldn't have been out so late! You scared me half to death!" Lily said.

A mischievous light suddenly started playing in Sirius' eyes. "Oh, did I interrupt something here…?" he asked slyly.

"Shut up," said James stiffly, and to Sirius' surprise, Lily blushed an impressive shade of deep red instead of brushing off his jab.

"Well, lesson learned. I'll be off now," he said, walking away, half-crouching.

"Wait, what are you hiding?" James asked, pulling at Sirius' robes. An assortment of cakes, pastries, and chocolate spilled out of a sloppily tied tablecloth.

"You're getting them dirty, throwing them on the floor like that!" Sirius yelped.

"It's a wonder that you're not elephant-sized by now," Lily remarked.

"It's for Remus," Sirius said, aiming a significant glance at James. Lily looked between the two of them, trying to figure out why James' face had suddenly morphed into the picture of sudden realization before he glanced out the hallway's window.

"What's going on?" Lily demanded.

"Nothing," James said, a little too quickly. "Try not to get caught next time, Padfoot."

Lily had never understood their little nicknames, and this irritated her to no end.

"The Head Boy can't just tell someone to _not get caught next time_," Lily said, staring at James in disbelief, hoping he would crack a smile and side with her, as he always had over the years.

But James said nothing, and after a moment of painfully awkward silence, Sirius scurried off.

"_What_ was that?" Lily asked.

"I know this is going to sound strange, but I really, really can't tell you," James said apologetically.

Lily stared at him for a full minute, and to James this almost felt like an eternity, her jade eyes seemingly calculating and questioning, to the point that he could imagine the whirring gears, until Lily abruptly broke away, shaking her head.

They continued their rounds, and James felt Lily's prickly silence acutely. He was sure Lily would be understanding, but if Moony didn't want people to know, then it wasn't his business to go around telling people.

Lily effectively ignored him the rest of the night, and went into her dormitory, closing the door with a spectacular slam that she hoped James would feel in his bones. This was probably the first time he hadn't been on her side—as long as she could remember, he was always trying to agree with her and get in her good graces, even when it was all for the cheap purpose of getting her to go out with him. And now, at the very end of the first month of their last year at Hogwarts, he'd suddenly turned cold.

There was a little part of Lily that felt spoiled for expecting James to always dote on her, but the bigger, angry part of her argued that she expected some level of trust from her… friend. The word sat uncomfortably in her mind, and turned her stomach just so as she remembered the…the thing. She wouldn't put a name to it just yet, and to squelch the mess of horrible feelings churning inside her, she turned to her ever-growing stack of books from the Restricted section.

There _had_ to be another book that disproved what she'd read… Medieval wizardry had been proven to be less accurate, more guesswork than legitimate magic, like that book that claimed the existence of all sorts of strange creatures, like Nargles and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks (something that all her teachers had declared to be 13th-century nonsense, of course).

Lily opened the first page of Strange and Obscure Magical Rumors, stifling a yawn. She skimmed through half of the book, then tired of it, and opened another, and it wasn't until much later (three twenty-two in the morning according to her trusty Muggle watch) that she decided she'd had enough and went to sleep, her head swimming with all she'd read.

She later reflected on it in the morning, while brushing her teeth. All she really remembered was that birthmarks on certain parts of the body could predict what kind of Patronus someone would have, and Lily was fairly sure she didn't have any birthmarks, except a few moles and beauty spots here and there. There was also something she dimly recalled about mood swings and drastic personality changes around the full moon being a sign of lycanthropy, and though the full moon was approaching, and Lily did feel silly for checking her calendar at all, she reasoned that she might have noticed if she were a werewolf.

In any case, it was time for her to go downstairs and have breakfast, so she spat out her toothpaste and tried not to worry too much, which was a strategy that never really worked out for Lily, and by the time she was sitting with her friends, she was half-convinced that she might have a werewolf birthmark somewhere on her body.

Marlene was not her usual bubbly self, and was sprawled out on the table, not touching any of the food around her. Now that Lily really looked, all the seventh-year girls had dark circles under their eyes. Lily knew why she herself was exhausted, but Mary and Dorcas were usually very good with their sleep, Mary firmly believing it got her better marks, and Dorcas having an unbendable resolution to always be in her best shape for Quidditch.

"Oi, what's up with all of us," Lily said weakly.

"Tired," said a small voice from under a mess of blonde hair, which Lily took to be Marlene.

Hestia looked up. "We could hear them talking all bloody night," she said. "I dunno what's up with them. Especially Remus, and he's usually the quiet one."

Lily perked up immediately. "I knew it! Something's off. What were they saying?"

"A lot of arguing and 'not yet.' Dunno, we weren't really _spying_ on them or anything," Hestia said, with an edge to her voice.

"What—am I 'spying'? Yeah? Is that what you think I'm doing?" Lily said, feeling the anger rise in her, creating a deadly cocktail with the pounding headache that had been sneaking up on her since she'd woken up, and was now rising to its crescendo.

"Shut up, _Lily_," Hestia said, balling her fists, and rising.

Mary looked up, bleary-eyed, and pulled Hestia down to sit again. Lily's mouth was a tight, thin line.

"Oooh, the girls are having a _row_," Sirius called out.

"Shut up!" Hestia and Lily said in unison, before settling down again.

James aimed a quick kick at Sirius. "Stop being such a prick to them."

"_Ow! _You have no idea. I just saved all of us," Sirius said importantly.

"Really?" Peter said, wide-eyed.

"Yeah," Sirius said, turning to Peter conspiratorially. "See, if they'd had a real, proper fight, we'd have been caught in the crossfire. Marlene would have sided with Lily, and Mary would have sided with Hestia. I'd have been forced to side with Marlene, and Moony would side with Mary."

"Why 'forced,' no one bloody forced you to do anything" was James' comment.

"And then Prongsie-poo would, of course, have sided with Lily, but he'd also side with me. So that creates a conflict between Remus and the two of us."

"What makes you think I'd side with you?" James said, barging in again.

"Hush, I'm explaining my master plan," Sirius said. "So, that would mean you, Wormie, would have to choose, and the four of us and our friendship would be destroyed. Instead, I saved the day by giving them a common enemy, me, and stopping the whole fight from happening."

"Wow," Peter said, while James only snorted. Remus hadn't been listening the whole time.

"What do you think of my plan?" Sirius said, a sly smile playing on his mouth as he poked Remus.

"Yes," Lupin said vaguely.

"Everything alright…?" James asked. Remus shot him a look that answered that question quite clearly, and James looked down.

"Chocolate?" Sirius offered.

Remus nodded quickly, and grabbed the chocolate bar from Sirius in one furtive movement, munching on it thoughtfully.

"Hey… I was thinking, maybe we could use your furry little problem for… Operation

Slimeball."

Remus' eyes suddenly bugged out.

"_What_?"

"Yes, like an interrogation with a little extra… persuasion," Sirius said grimly.

Remus shook his head so vigorously that his hair fell out of place. "_No._ That is so dangerous and… irresponsible. I don't want to be guilty of—anything that could happen. No."

"Alright, keep your pants on. It was an idea," Sirius said.

! #$%^&amp;*

Lily almost nodded off for a moment and woke up all of a sudden, and found the entire classroom staring at her. Did she have something on her face? She absently touched her cheek, not realizing how silly that must look until it was too late.

"Miss Evans…?" Professor Rabnott asked sharply, and Lily suddenly realized that she must've been called on. Mercifully, the professor repeated the question. "What are some characteristics of werewolves?"

"Mood swings around the full moon," she blurted out, remembering her late-night reading.

"Very good. Miss Corner, how does one contract lycanthropy?"

Lily's head swam. There seemed to be so much talk of werewolves these days. She supposed it was because the full moon was approaching in a few days, and by then it would already be early October… A full moon the month of Halloween.

There was also something itching at her in the back of her mind, something she'd realized long ago but had chosen not to see because it simply hurt too much to admit. Lily pushed the thought away. She still didn't understand her discomfort when it came to werewolves, but she had the distinct feeling that there was something she half-knew and didn't want to dwell on.

Lily scribbled on her parchment what Proffesor Rabnott's chalk was writing on the board while she paced across the front of the classroom without really thinking about the words she was writing. She swore not to stay up so late again tonight. But there was something in her mind that somehow knew that it was just an empty resolution, as rounds with James were bound to be tense.

It was as if she knew that something would happen.


	14. Chapter 14

It seemed there was not a single player on the Gryffindor Quidditch team that wasn't complaining. James ran a hand through his hair, trying not to hear the chorus of:

"It's dark out."

"I have a lot of work."

"It's the fifth practice this week, and it's only Thursday!"

James turned to the disgruntled team. "We have a match on Saturday, and I intend on winning! Or are we giving up to Ravenclaw yet?"

"Are we winning in terms of exhaustion?" Sirius muttered, and James pretended not to hear.

Artificial lights had been cast by Madam Jenkins, the Quidditch instructor, who surveyed the field unhappily. She seemed to share the opinion of the rest of the team, but when the Head of the Gryffindor House had personally asked to have the pitch reserved, there were no arguments.

Possibly, James' best bit of strategy so far had been to choose Michael McGonagall as his Keeper, because now his aunt was doing everything in her power to make excuses for the team. She'd even accepted to let James hand in his essay on the risks of human Transfiguration late, on account of the upcoming first match of the season. She'd even softened and wished him good luck before commenting on how difficult it must be to have that sort of responsibility.

The two newcomers were significantly quieter than the other Gryffindors on the pitch. Michael, third-year, was shy for now, but there was something in his bright eyes and slightly prominent front teeth that made it look like he was going to be the one cracking jokes as soon as he got comfortable. Did he look like Professor McGonagall? James wondered. It was hard to tell. What would she have looked like if she were a thirteen-year-old boy?

James dispelled the thought with a shiver, and turned to the other addition to the team, a fourth-year girl who would be their third Chaser. Elaine Finnigan seemed surly, quiet, and unyielding, her face hidden behind a long sheet of wavy, brown-black hair. James wondered how she would do in a match, paired with reasonable, reliable Fabian Prewett, fifth-year, and he himself, James Potter, Team Captain and the generally impetuous, risk-taking third Chaser who, in trying to confuse the opposing team, would also leave his own teammates confused as to what the hell he was doing. That was why James required absolute trust in the field, because, as the older team members had learned, most of the time James' crazy feints and last-minute ideas turned out to work in their favor.

They were finally standing square in the middle of the Quidditch pitch. "Divide into two teams!"

He watched as Sirius and Dorcas immediately went to one side. The two had a strange sort of friendship which revolved around Sirius cracking off-color jokes in an attempt to shock or surprise Dorcas, who had only so far responded with rolls of the eyes or a complete lack of reaction. Dorcas, in turn, was always loyal to their little duo and covered for Sirius when he missed practice, the frequency of which had already thoroughly annoyed the whole of the team.

Fabian followed the two seventh-years, and that left their Seeker, Benjy, with the two newcomers. This was what James had wanted: pitting the newer ones against the older ones so they could learn their tricks, their style, which would make their team a unit that worked together.

James mounted his broom and kicked up into the air. He would show them an idea that he'd gotten overnight: do the exact opposite of what the other team expects, take advantage of the surprise, and score.

One by one, the other players rose into the air, and James blew his whistle, taking his place on the older players' side. Fabian had got possession of the Quaffle and tried to score, a weak throw compared to the fierceness and intensity that he used in a match. His real throw was one that had broken many noses, and James suspected that Fabian was wisely trying to avoid this in practice.

McGonagall caught it easily, and James nodded to himself as Finnigan took the Quaffle and weaved in between the other players. She seemed good, put hadn't yet proven herself under true pressure. Fabian took the Quaffle from her soon after, and James motioned to him.

Out of habit, Fabian tossed him the Quaffle without question, wondering what James was up to now. Feeling the familiar weight of the object in his hands, he flew at a reasonable pace towards the hoops. McGonagall circled the hoops restlessly while Finnigan was at full attention. Just before Elaine Finnigan had reached him, he suddenly turned, racing towards his own side at full speed.

Nonplussed, the other team watched, drawing a little further away from their own goal. When James was about to smack into Fabian, he turned again, looping under Benjy, Finnigan, and McGonagall all at once, and scored easily.

He tapped his head. "Strategy!" he shouted.

Elaine Finnigan shook her head, mouth open.

! #$%^&amp;*

Lily was falling asleep again. The third time she closed her eyes and woke up with a start, almost smacking herself in the face with the spellbook she was trying to read, she decided she needed to brew herself a Wakefulness Potion.

Checking her Muggle watch, she saw it hadn't yet been an hour since the end of classes: Professor Slughorn was still bound to be in the Dungeons. He usually gave an hour to an hour and a half after classes to the students who needed extra time on an assignment, extra help, or his select favorites, who were given full license to brew and experiment under his praising eye.

Stretching herself out, and hearing many distinct cracks in her back, she headed towards the enchanted door. She should probably change the password, she thought, but put it off until later. The days that James had Quidditch, which was becoming almost every day as James' match drew closer (of which he reminded the entire House daily), Lily had afternoons to herself before she would do rounds later in the afternoon.

She'd given up entirely on ignoring James, because it was such hard work. It seems very easy to _not_ do something, and in theory, it should have been less work for her to not talk to him, but she constantly caught herself starting to say something, before remembering she was cross at him. James' satisfied smirks every time she forgot to be angry were unbearable, so she'd done things on her terms and told him she forgave him, before letting out all the things she'd stopped herself from saying: did James believe in Medieval magical rumors, did he have any birthmarks, why was it so cold all of a sudden, what did write for his Transfiguration essay, what was going on with Snape…

Lily's musings had brought her to the dungeons, and she pushed the door open, expecting it to be abuzz with frustrated first-years and a few furtive students attempting to make love potions. Instead, it was dark and quiet, and Lily first thought it was empty, setting her bag down on one of the rough wooden tables.

But it wasn't empty, and Lily felt the prickling in her neck before she heard the noise of the people that were there, before she smelled it, thick, foresty, and somewhat putrid… She gasped, recognizing James' description perfectly, before turning to see a few robed figures running out, with a distinctive flash of green. She couldn't have been sure, but she thought she'd seen Lucius Malfoy's blond hair, or Rookwood's pasty face.

She ran to the other end of the dungeon and saw a cauldron set up, still warm. No ingredients were left out for her to piece together what they'd been making, and the cauldron was empty, but the smell still lingered. Did they Vanish the Potion? Or… did they take it with them?

There was no need for a Wakefulness Potion now. Lily was fully alert, and her first idea was to run to the teachers and tell them what she'd seen. But then she remembered what had happened when James had accused Snape… No one had believed him. And Lily had no more proof than a smell and a very distinct _feeling_.

James.

She had to run tell him, so they could put into action whatever plan he had in place to catch Snape.

Lily found herself tearing through corridors, her bag slapping her thigh, until she'd left the castle and was running down to the Quidditch pitch. It was brightly lit against the heavy darkness outside, and Lily squinted underneath the extra-bright spells cast over the pitch.

Seven small figures were zooming overhead, and no one heard when she shouted. She shot up red sparks, before finally resorting to magically amplifying her voice.

"I NEED A WORD WITH THE HEAD BOY," she shouted, her voice echoing everywhere and causing more than a few of the players to clap their hands over their ears.

The action up in the air was grinding to a halt, and a single figure flew down, landing next to her. James dismounted, shooting Lily a questioning look while the rest of the team landed lightly.

"Evans Alert: Code Red," Sirius muttered. "Next time anyone wants to skive off practice, just call her."

"Yeah?" James asked, panting and out of breath from… whatever thing they'd been doing in the air. Lily didn't really know and wasn't about to delve into the complicated world of intense Quidditch.

"Let's go to the locker room," Lily said significantly. James followed, looking blankly confused.

"Yeah, and have fun snogging!" Sirius shouted after them.

Dorcas pushed him slightly, a disapproving look on her face, and Michael McGonagall looked vaguely scared.

"Well, more free time," Fabian shrugged. "Good work, team."

Sirius squinted at the two. Something was definitely happening, and he had half a mind to go spy on them. He decided against it in the end. James would tell him later, and if not… Sirius would force the truth out of him. A singularly evil smile took over his features as the team dispersed.

Back in the locker rooms, Lily told James what she'd seen breathlessly.

"_What?_ Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Smelled like a rotting pine forest, yeah?"

"Sort of, yeah."

"They're going to poison someone else!" Lily said. "We've got to… do something. Whatever you're planning late at night, do it now!"

"Lily… What can we do? We don't know who they're targeting, we don't fully know how the potion works, and the teachers don't believe us."  
Lily knew this, but she'd hoped that James would find a solution, fix this somehow. She felt a wave of something terrible wash over her.

"I don't want to die," she whispered.

"You're not going to die," James said, pulling Lily into a hug.

It was symbolic, of course. He had no way of guaranteeing that, and for a moment, they both thought of all the places that potion could be planted, waiting for that single deadly contact. In the dormitory, in the bedsheets, in the faucets, in the shower water, in their pumpkin juice…

True, it was selfish, and she wasn't the only one at risk, but Lily had never so much wished in her life that she weren't Muggle-born.


	15. Chapter 15

As soon as James woke up Friday morning, and saw Lily sprawled out on the floor, his heart leapt to his throat and he ran over to shake her.

Lily made a sound that was something like "Mrrrr?" and James let out a low breath, calming himself.

"Why'dyouwakemeup," Lily asked from behind a yawn.

"I thought—never mind."

"Oh yeah, 'm alive. Feels nice," she said groggily, before picking up the book that had been lying open on her stomach before James knocked it to the floor. She groaned at the reading she still had left to do.

"Why does Professor Rabnott want us to write four bloody feet about werewolves? Is she insane?" Lily grumbled.

Early-morning Lily was something that James had not yet experienced, and he raised an eyebrow at the way she was flinging curses and insults.

"'How does one identify a werewolf,'" Lily said in a simpering, mocking voice. "Like we're going to need to know how to do that."

At that moment, James looked so painfully guilty that Lily stopped and stared. "What?" she demanded.

"Nothing."

"There's obviously something."

"Nothing."

"Did you get a bad mark on your last werewolf assignment…?" Lily probed. James almost laughed to think that Lily's immediate assumption of a worst-case scenario was a bad mark, but he kept his face serious.

"I got 'Acceptable,'" James said truthfully.

"Oh," Lily said gently. "I'm sorry."

"It's still a passing grade!" James said defensively.

"It's alright, I won't tell," Lily said as she gathered the other debris of her homework: parchment, ink, quills…

"You can tell everyone! Loads of people get 'Acceptable,' it's fine!" James shouted after Lily as she climbed the stairs to her dormitory.

It seemed no one had died that morning, but Lily and James seemed to be the only two who found this a relief.

"No one died!" James said at breakfast.

Sirius looked at him. "Great. Amazing," he said sarcastically.

"I'm lost," Remus said.

"I have to tell you something…" James said, remembering that he hadn't told any of the Marauders.

"Did you snog Lily in the locker rooms? Did you shag?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"_No,_" James said, shooting a scathing look at his best mate. "It's about Operation Slimeball."

Meanwhile Lily's realization had no more of an effect on her end of the breakfast table. "Nobody died!"

"_Great,_ Lily, just _perfect_—what a way to reassure me! Is—is this some sort of ploy?" Marlene asked almost tearfully. " 'Oh Marlene, don't whine because at least no one _died_, look on the bright side of things.' "

"No, that's not—" Lily said desperately.

"If I ever hope to get a job at the Ministry, I _need_ to pass Muggle Studies, and this is my last year, you know, no second chances," Marlene said. "This is my entire life on the line!"

"Alright, let me take a look," Lily said, taking the parchment from Marlene. "Are these your notes?" she asked, an expression of confusion taking over her face.

"Yeah, what does it look like?" Marlene asked impatiently.

"This—this is a mess, how can you study from this?"

The parchment had illegible scribbles all over it, half of the things Marlene had written were scribbled out, and a web of arrows and circles linked the blocks of text to comments like "what?" and "do not understand."

"You need to rewrite this with… I dunno, bullet points or something."

"Can't I just cheat?"

Lily shot Marlene a Look.

"Right, right, Head Girl," Marlene muttered, looking thoroughly put out.

"Or you can just learn all of these things like a normal person."

"Lily, you know I'm not a normal person."

Lily sighed. "Only too well."

! #$%^&amp;*

Marlene was still asking questions by the time they'd gotten to the Transfiguration classroom.

"Wait, wait," Marlene said, looking through her notes. "How do elections work?"

"Er," Lily said, thinking. "Well, they used to have you write on little papers who you wanted for, you know, a position or something, and they counted them up and picked a… a winner. But now it happens on machines, I suppose."

"Yes. And how do those work?"

"I dunno, I'm not an engineer, am I? It just sort of happens."

"I can't put on my exam that it 'just sort of happens.'"

"Marls, I'm sorry, but we really have to go to class now. I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Yeah," Marlene said sarcastically. "At least no one died."

Lily ignored her friend, knowing this was just another one of her moods brought on by stress, and stepped into the classroom, hoping this would be an easy class.

Professor McGonagall was, strangely, talking to James, and Lily looked curiously for a moment, but sat down, grateful that she would get away with being a little late.

When the professor had broken away with a little laugh (Lily was very surprised by that point), she cleared her throat and went to the front of the classroom.

"I understand everyone is very excited about the upcoming Quidditch match."

Dead silence greeted her, and a few people shifted uncomfortably.

"Aren't you rooting for your House?" she said sharply, and the class responded with a few "Yes ma'am"s.

James shot Lily a gloating smile which she chose to ignore. If he had been sitting near her, she would have commented on how unprofessional it was to take advantage of his position in the classroom, and how Professor McGonagall probably had other things on her mind.

But she had to be contented with a look, and sighed. Why did everyone care so much about Quidditch? It had always seemed to Lily a trivial thing to get worked up about the way the Gryffindors often did, and even more so now. Did no one remember Felicia Tipman, the dead girl?

Lily felt worry broil at the pit of her stomach as thoughts of the Slytherins' potion overtook her. She wondered if Felicia had felt something strange when she'd come into contact with it, and overlooked it, or whether she hadn't felt anything at all when she'd been poisoned, and had gone to sleep taking for granted that she would wake up the next morning.

At the end of class, Lily only had some half-hearted notes about Transfiguring into other people, the pros, cons, and comparisons to using a potion to take another's appearance. Lily vaguely understood that Polyjuice was more accurate and effective, but wore off, and remembered something about the difficulty of returning to your original state after Transfiguration, but she had to admit that she'd barely listened to anything the professor was saying.

On her way out, Lily bumped into Remus Lupin. She smiled at him; he'd been the kindest and most reasonable Marauder, and when they'd become prefects in fifth year, the inevitable friendship had struck up. Remus was quietly intelligent and very thoughtful, and shared Lily's perfectionism when it came to schoolwork. He'd also been honest and told her that James had jumped at the occasion when he'd learned they were studying together on Wednesdays, asking him to spy on Lily and find out as many things about her as possible.

In short, if someone had told Lily last summer that she would be sharing rounds and living quarters with a Marauder, Remus was the one she would have desperately wished for.

But now… Things had changed, somehow.

"Hi," she said with a small smile.

Remus nodded, a pained expression on his face, and Lily looked at him, her eyebrows twisted into concern. His ash-blond hair had gone from neat, if a little overgrown, to messy and sticking out every which way. Dark purple bags underlined his eyes, and his tie was badly knotted and all twisted.

"Are you all right? You look…" Lily trailed off, not sure how to finish that statement.

"I look like shit? Thanks, Lily," Remus said, a biting edge to his tone.

Lily felt like she'd been slapped, and maybe Remus noticed the shock she was displaying, because he quickly amended. "Sorry. I'm under a lot of stress, and I shouldn't have spoken to you that way. You of all people don't deserve that…"

"It's no problem, I've snapped at my fair share of people these last few weeks," Lily said truthfully, her mind drifting guiltily to James. "What's the stress about? Maybe I can help you study."

"Study? STUDY?" Remus shouted, before storming off. Lily stood rooted to the spot for a full minute, before James finally left the Transfiguration classroom. She dimly registered that he must have been talking about Quidditch this whole time.

"Everything alright?" he asked, an uneasy smile appearing on his face.

Lily nodded and snapped herself out of it. "Yes, I… Is Remus doing well?"

There was that guilty expression again. James' eyes dropped to the floor and his jaw clenched. "He's fine," he said tensely.

"No, he's not fine. He looks in terrible shape, and there's something you're not telling me. How are we supposed to be friends if you won't tell me anything?"

"Friends?" James asked, perking up suddenly.

"I mean coworkers. Co-Head Students," Lily amended quickly.

"No, you said 'friends,' " James said, a teasing smile appearing slowly but surely. He decided to push his luck a little. "I'm disappointed though, I thought you'd want to be a bit more than—"

"SHUT—UP!" Lily shouted, but it was a lot less convincing now that she'd turned bright red to match her hair, down to the tip of her ears.

She stomped off, making sure to be loud about it, while James laughingly called after her: "It was just a joke!"


	16. Chapter 16

The Ravenclaws were bright blue against the spring-green grass, while the Gryffindors flashed red. They milled about, waiting for Madam Jenkins to appear and start the match.

On the Ravenclaw side, a figure detached from the mass of blue, and walked over to James. It was their Quidditch Captain, Adelaide Corner, who was known as an oddball, even for a Ravenclaw. He dimly remembered that Lily had named her as one of her Ravenclaw friends, and decided to be nice.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully.

"Er, hi," James said.

"We're the Quidditch Captains!" she said in the same excited tone, though she was stating the obvious. James nodded, trying not to look at her overly happy face, instead focusing on her hair, which was a pale clementine color, like it couldn't decide between blond and red.

"I remember there was a lot of trouble putting together a Quidditch team, because many of the people in our House declared that sports were irrational and a waste of caloric intake."

James chuckled, remembering Lily's outburst that "sports are stupid."

"I have to say, I can't argue with their logic," Corner continued. "Sports were, in fact, created in early societies to train young men for hunting, and the practice is now irrelevant as we do not need to go hunting. But, I maintain that Quidditch is all about strategy." Adelaide Corner tapped her head significantly.

James nodded, surprised to find that he agreed with her. "Yeah, it is."

"Good luck," Corner said, before turning away, back towards her team.

James barely had time to register this exchange, because Madam Jenkins was striding into the Quidditch pitch. The noise of the crowd, which had until now been an excited buzz at best, escalated into a roar. James felt the adrenaline run through him as Madam Jenkins nodded, and Adelaide Corner stepped out to shake hands with him.

Her hand was soft and her grip weak, and James stared straight into her eyes, sure they would win. Irrationality and stupidity or not.

Madam Jenkins raised her wand hand, and magically magnified her voice. "Players, up into their air!"

James scrambled to his broom and kicked off a bit unsteadily, righting himself as he picked up altitude. There was just one thing he wanted to do before the match started.

While Madam Jenkins asked for fair play and honest sportsmanship during this first match of the season, James suddenly sped away from the rest of his team, heading towards the Gryffindor part of the crowd.

It was easy to spot where the seventh years were sitting, because they had a huge, rippling banner with, painted on it with such lack of skill that James was practically sure it was Sirius who had done it, the huge grinning face of none other than James Potter.

Huge letters above the monstrous face blared "Go Potter Go" in red and gold, and the whole thing was enchanted to move and flicker. Just under the left ear of the bobbing and smiling head was a very uncomfortable looking Lily. James squinted and spotted the scarf still wound around her neck.

James gestured wildly at her, pointing at his neck. She frowned and said something he couldn't hear, but he figured it must have been something angry, and decided it was all for the better that the roar was covering it.

"Will the Gryffindor Team Captain _please_ return to his position!" Madam Jenkins boomed irritably.

"Sorry!" James said, though this was lost among the noise. Instead, he aimed his broom towards the other specks of red, and, pouring on the speed, rejoined the team.

The whistle blew and the Quaffle was off, with one of the Ravenclaw Chasers taking possession. He swerved to avoid a Bludger and dropped the Quaffle, which Fabian caught and threw at James. "PREWETT IN POSSESSION, HE PASSES TO POTTER," the commentary boomed. Mid-flight, James realized guiltily that he'd forgotten to learn the names of the other team's players.

The Chaser who had dropped the Quaffle, Jerry, (he looked like a Jerry to James) was hot on James' tail. He looked over to his left and nodded at Fabian, three obvious nods like they'd practiced, and Jerry drifted over to Fabian, expecting to intercept. Elaine Finnigan, meanwhile, was ready to catch the Quaffle with no one tailing her, and she zoomed forward, the red Quaffle hugged close to her with one arm.

James let out a deranged cackle in jubilation, glad his little plan had worked. He was sure that the smart, calculating Ravenclaws would quickly realize that he would pass to whomever he _wasn't _nodding towards, but it had at least worked once, and James had many more of these tricks up his sleeve.

_Strategy!_

Adelaide, the Seeker, was gesturing wildly towards her Keeper, Eyebrows, who seemed to look angry all the time. The Gryffindors were heading towards the Ravenclaw goal, and the blue team was grouping in front of the hoops, which was a strange strategy. Even the two Beaters had their clubs out, ready to stop Gryffindor from scoring.

"WELL THIS IS STRANGE," said the student commentator, a Slytherin girl. "RAVENCLAW HAS SEEMED TO ABANDON EVERYTHING TO HELP COVER THE GOALPOSTS. IS THIS A CLEVER STRATEGY OR DO THEY URGENTLY NEED A NEW KEEPER?"

James shook his head, trying to clear it. This was completely unexpected. What would Ravenclaw do about Bludgers with their Beaters at the goal? Then an idea formed in his mind. "Sirius! Dorcas!" he called the two Gryffindor Beaters.

They looked at him, and James could almost see the dread as they wondered what he would do now. The team captain only pointed at two small black dots whizzing around above the field.

Sirius flew up immediately, and James hoped he had understood. Dorcas followed, probably out of blind trust. Soon after, two Bludgers were whizzing towards the mass of Ravenclaws in front of the goals.

Off guard, and without their Beaters to protect them, they instinctively scattered. James crossed his fingers, looking to Elaine, who had the Quaffle. She threw her arm back and the well-aimed Quaffle soared through the middle hoop.

"LOOKS LIKE TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR…" The Slytherin girl sounded almost disappointed.

But the Ravenclaw team regrouped quickly. The three Chasers spread out into an arrow-shaped formation.

"NORDEN IN POSSESSION."

As he sped towards the Ravenclaws, James numbly realized that Norden must be Jerry. He frowned, pouring on the speed. "MCGONAGALL, STRATEGY NUMBER THREE!" James shouted at his Keeper. It was a risky move, but they could afford it if they were ahead. Besides, James couldn't see Gryffindor overtaking the three Chasers in a compact formation, especially with the head start they head.

Michael McGonagall nodded, his boyish face set. James watched anxiously, having stopped in the middle of the field. The other Chasers also stopped their wild pursuing of the Ravenclaws, and stopped in the middle of the field. Emboldened, the Ravenclaws were sure to score, and then the plan would be put into action.

"THE GRYFFINDORS HAVE JUST STOPPED! ARE THEY GIVING UP SO QUICKLY?"

McGonagall took a deep breath and ducked down, leaving the goal exposed. Luckily for Gryffindor, Jerry wasn't in possession, but another Chaser, Freckles, who threw clumsily. This was the delicate part of the plan. Michael rose up as soon as he saw Freckles' arm tense to throw, and caught the Quaffle in mid-air, tossing it to Elaine, who was closest.

She had thrown it to James, who was nearing the Ravenclaw goal before the commentator had fully registered what had happened. "GRYFFINDOR JUST… IS THAT EVEN ALLOWED?"

James smirked. It was, actually, he'd checked a rule book: the Keeper was a player too, and nothing stopped him from being in possession of the ball and passing it to a teammate.

He looked down and saw Benjy and Adelaide racing each other, head-to-head and spinning wildly out of control. He could only assume the Snitch was nearby. They suddenly changed course and came shooting upwards.

James tensed his arm and hurled the Quaffle, trying to score. He was too far away, of course, and missed, but anything would serve as a distraction by that point. Adelaide didn't even flinch. "HEY! OVER HERE!" he shouted. Now was the critical moment. The Quaffle barely mattered anymore as long as Benjy caught the Snitch.

Adelaide had lifted to a wobbly crouch, and Benjy's arm was outstretched. James could just barely see the glint of gold, then something darker zooming towards the struggling pair. Both Dorcas and the two Ravenclaw Beaters saw the oncoming Bludger, and raced towards the two Seekers.

James grimaced. It was two against one, and though Sirius had caught on quickly, he was too far behind to be of much help to Dorcas. She had to aim well and quickly to win the match. Dorcas reached the scene at the same time as the other two Beaters, and the small object was hit by three different bats, and spun out of control towards Adelaide and Benjy. The Bludger ended up striking her about the jaw and landing just under Benjy's ribs. They both faltered for a moment, Adelaide's eyes watering and Benjy struggling to breathe, but Gryffindor had the advantage since their Seeker could still see.

Benjy Fenwick closed his hand around the Snitch and James let out a breath. They'd won by pure luck. All the players landed lightly on the grass, in a sort of daze.

The commentator reflected the state of confusion. "GRYFFINDOR…WINS? WELL, WHAT A WAY TO START THE QUIDDITCH SEASON." Adelaide's jaw had a large bruise already blooming on it, and she looked on the verge of tears, while Benjy was coughing and hacking. Teachers were already gathering around the two, performing healing spells.

There was a huge party going on in the Gryffindor Common Room that James could hear from the hallway, but at the moment, that was where he least wanted to be. He found Lily in their Common Room, peacefully writing on a piece of parchment, the lucky scarf draped loosely over her knees.

"Well, you _did_ win," she said, taking one look at James' downcast face.

"Sports are stupid," he said.

That managed to elicit a chuckle from Lily, who couldn't help but say, "I told you so."


	17. Chapter 17

James refused to talk about Quidditch until Lily coaxed him out of it the next morning.

"Are you _really _that upset?" Lily asked him for the seventh time (James had counted), hiding a smile. The whole thing seemed to be very amusing for her. "It wasn't that horrible, you know."

"We didn't win honorably. It was just by luck—and by injuring two students! There was no bravery, no glory… it's an insult to all the Gryffindor values!" James exploded.

"I'm sure Godric Gryffindor is turning in his grave because of a Quidditch game," Lily said, chuckling still. "If it's really that bad, why don't you go talk to the Ravenclaw team? There's still time before class."

"I can't track them down one by one, can I?"

Lily checked her Muggle watch. "I think… they're having practice right now."

"Practice? But we just had a match! I don't think the Quidditch pitch is even open."

"They hold their practices in the library," Lily said, as if this was obvious.

"They can't possibly manage to fly in the library."

Lily looked at him. "They don't use their _brooms_. What did you expect from the Ravenclaws, James?"

"That's it, I have to see this," James said, standing up dramatically.

Sirius looked at him. "What?" he asked, bleary-eyed. It looked like he hadn't slept at all the previous night.

"I'm going to the library," James announced.

"Good god, Evans is rubbing off on him," Sirius muttered.

! #$%^&amp;*

Lily explained that this was "their corner" before telling James to hush. They rounded a row of bookshelves and saw a small group of students in Ravenclaw robes, surrounded by piles upon piles of books.

"Hello, Lily!" Adelaide Corner said happily, before looking down awkwardly when her eyes met James'.

"So, what are you doing?" Lily asked casually.

"We're devising a new filing system for the library," Freckles answered.

"Adelaide, would this one go under 'Quidditch, Sport of' or 'Quidditch, Art of'?" Jerry asked.

"Hand me the book, please," Adelaide said, and she started leafing through it. "This is definitely more practical than theoretical. I would file it under 'Quidditch, Sport of' in the 'Practical Quidditch' bin."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and the book was placed on top of a pile.

"Isn't the librarian supposed to do this?" James asked.

"Who?" Surly, the Keeper, asked.

"The librarian," James repeated.

"Is it that lady who sits in a corner all day?" a small boy said, immediately named by James as Pre-School. "I thought she was just here to read."

"We're the librarians," Freckles said grimly. James was beginning to feel thoroughly unsettled.

"I'm here because I wanted to apologize for—for winning like that. It wasn't true Gryffindor behavior," James said abruptly.

Adelaide suddenly grinned. "We did some math before the match and we predicted a range of losing by anywhere from 200 to 300 points. In comparison, losing by only 160 was a triumph."

James allowed himself a little smile. In a strange way, the Ravenclaws were actually very nice.

"Class is starting soon," said Pre-School. Almost as soon as he'd said that, everyone stood up and was slinging bags over shoulders and straightening ties.

"I'll see you in Charms!" Adelaide said in passing to James.

It wasn't until all the Ravenclaws had left that James turned to Lily and asked her, "Do we have charms with Adelaide Corner?"

"_Yes_," Lily said sternly. "You didn't notice? Did you at least notice I have that class too?"

"'Course I noticed _you_," James said dismissively.

"Oh, good," Lily said sarcastically. James started to turn left, while she had to continue through the main corridor. Lily had Arithmancy, and wasn't sure what James had first hour. "Let's meet at seven for rounds, in front of our dormitory," she called.

James suddenly stopped, and turned to face Lily, his face set and emotionless. "I can't tonight."

"You're Head Boy," Lily said slowly. "This is what a Head Boy is supposed to do."

"I'll take extra rounds tomorrow," he said.

"What is it? It can't possibly be Quidditch, you said the pitch isn't open," Lily said, annoyed. "Why are you lying?"

"Sorry," was all he said, before turning away. Lily really couldn't be late, so she had to grit her teeth and keep going her own way, towards the Arithmancy classroom.

In the classroom, Professor Quadra was already writing something on the board, so Lily took out her parchment and dipped her quill into ink. Underneath her anger towards James, she could feel something else: a pulsing headache from lack of sleep. Being Head Girl was exhausting.

Lily's noticed, just as she was about to put the quill down, that her parchment seemed to have faint marks on it. She turned it over and saw it had already been written on. Scanning the words quickly, she saw it was a letter to her parents that she'd written over a week ago.

Suddenly feeling a little spike of guilt, she decided that she'd write to them in the evening, and send the letter along with Barley. They hadn't been replied yet, and Lily was starting to suspect they'd forgotten how to send mail by owl.

Her reverie was interrupted when Professor Quadra suddenly started talking. Today's topic was about the difference between Agrippan and Chaldean methods.

"Miss Evans, if I were to show you these numbers, which method would I be using?" Professor Quadra asked, pointing towards something on the board. Lily mentally cursed; the teachers called on her too often for her liking now that she was Head Girl.

"Miss Evans?"

"Agrippan," Lily finally said.

"Yes, and how do you justify your answer?"

"The number nine is not used in the Chaldean method," Lily said, feeling relieved that she'd gotten it right.

"Correct. Now, in this class so far, we have mostly used the Agrippan method, which is easier to work with since it is set up according to the Latin alphabet—'our' alphabet. But it is important to be aware of the Chaldean method, which will come up in later lessons, and in your N.E.W.T.s. The Chaldean method is based on Aramaic languages, and the Hebrew alphabet…"

Lily scribbled the words "Latin- Agrippan, Hebrew- Chaldean" before her focus loosened and she found herself massaging a temple. At the moment, she didn't really care about Arithmancy, though she'd been very excited about taking such an advanced class during September. But now it was October, though only the beginning of the month, and she was already worn down. She found herself wishing for snow and December, when she could go back home. She was determined to enjoy herself over the holidays, no matter how horrible Tuney would be.

"Miss Evans?"

Lily snapped her head up. Had she been called? But Professor Quadra was looking at an entirely different place in the classroom. Lily followed her gaze and saw a Hufflepuff girl, Sharon Ellens, and breathed out a sigh. She must have misheard the professor saying "Miss Ellens."

Snapping back to attention, Lily copied down what had been added to the board, and forced herself to pay attention to numbers and addition, methods and prediction. She left the classroom with her head filled with complicated things, and didn't notice Severus Snape until she practically bumped into him.


End file.
